Survivor
by Anno1701
Summary: What if Sirius wouldn't have died at the battle at the ministry? Would he have survived the war and lived a nice and peaceful life with Harry and the others? Or would he have died a heroes death, protecting the people he loved most? This is my version about what would have happened SIRIUSxHERMIONE Don't read if you don't like ;)
1. Chapter 1

**So this is the first chapter of my new fanfiction about Harry Potter (well or Sirius Black) :) The first chapter is more like a prologue, so please don't stop reading because it is not that exciting. In the next chapters more events will take place, I promise ;)**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 1

Sirius POV

I couldn't believe it.

I had survived the battle at the department of mysteries. Thanks to Hermione.

When Bellatrix wanted to curse me, she had pushed me out of the way and the curse, which - thank God - hadn't been deadly, had hit her in the back. First I was very shocked and couldn't move, but after a few seconds I realized that I had to do something. Bellatrix, who hat thought that she had killed Hermione, had run away, loudly crying "I KILLED THE MUDBLOOD!" and laughing madly.

Of course Harry followed her immediately and nobody had been able to stop him. The people of us who had seen him going wanted to run after them too, but the other Death Eaters had stopped them by attacking stronger than before.

I had also wanted to follow my godson, but I knew that Hermione was injured very badly and needed my help. Another Death Eater, who had been standing close to Bellatrix, had seen the attack and was moving towards us. On one hand it was because he knew me but on the other one he wanted to kill Hermione, the muggleborn witch.

So I had decided to protect Hermione. Harry and the others would have never forgiven me if she was killed, but surprisingly I wouldn't have been able to live with myself anymore too. It would have been my fault if she would have died. She had wanted to save me. Without her something would have been missing.

Even now I couldn't figure out why she did it. She had put herself in danger just to save someone who had been most of his life in Azkaban. Someone they had called murderer. Traitor. Liar. Crazy. She had no real connection to me. Just Harry, whom she loved. But that was another point I wasn't sure about. Did she really love him or was he just like a brother for her?

I think the second presumption was true.

The whole year Harry had talked about a girl called Cho Chang who was one year older than him and also playing Quidditch. He wanted her to go out with him but she said no because her former boyfriend, Cederic Diggory, had been killed by Lord Voldemort the previous summer and she wasn't over it yet.

The rest of the battle I had been staying with Hermione, but when Dumbledore and the people of the ministry arrived, they had called me to come to them. Finally they believed that I wasn't the one who had told Voldemort the secret of the Potters and who was responsible for their death. The minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge, had told me in front of the press that I wasn't blamed anymore and that I was free to go where I want again.

I was shocked. I have been believing that I would die as an outcast, without being able to live my life as I want it.

But now I could do what I want. Fight in the war against Voldemort and his Death Eaters together with all my friends. Fall in love with someone and maybe have a family. If we would win and I would survive the war. The chances for that to happen weren't very high, but how can you live a life without hope?

* * *

After having talked to the minister and other members of the ministry of magic, I went together with Dumbledore and Harry to Hogwarts. The others were already gone because many of the students, like Hermione, Neville and Ron had been injured. They were already in the hospital wing of the castle and Madam Pomfrey was taking care of them, so we didn't have to worry.

In Professor Dumbledore's office he told us about the prophecy which made Voldemort attack Lily and James Potter so many years ago. When he found out that Neville could also have been at his place, Harry was shocked. I couldn't believe it either, but after Harry and I listened to the prophecy of Professor Trelawney we couldn't doubt it anymore.

Harry was the chosen one because Lord Voldemort decided to attack him and not Neville. He chose the half-blood wizard because he was more like him and that was something he never liked. He hated muggles and the fact that his father wasn't able to do magic.

After having talked about the events of the previous night we changed the topic. Dumbledore wanted Harry to go to the Dursley's in the summer again. Both of us protested very loudly, but he didn't want to hear anything about Harry living with me. He said that it was necessary and that no one could change his decision. But he would just have to stay there for a few weeks and then he could go to Grimmauld Place or the Burrow for the rest of his holidays.

At the end Harry and I had to agree and Dumbledore smiled satisfied.

After the conversation Harry and I decided to go to the hospital wing to look for our friends.

_Then I'm going to see Hermione again... _I thought and a little smile spread over my face. I didn't know why and the fact that I was so shocked and worried when she shoved me away during the battle confused me a little bit. I really had to see if she was okay. Nearly all of my thoughts were circling around that girl. It was something which had never happened to me before...  
_What is she doing to me? _


	2. Chapter 2

**So here's the next chapter. I hope you'll like it :)**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 2

Sirius POV

The castle was waking up. The sun rose slowly and the students were leaving their common rooms to go to the great hall, where they could get their breakfast. It was a strange feeling to walk through these corridors again. It has been nearly 20 years since I left Hogwarts together with my friends and in all those years I hadn't seen the school again.

Being able to go where I want was great. Of course I knew that the students still saw me as a murderer and were afraid of me until they read the article in the Daily Prophet, but right now that didn't bother me. The soft whispering which followed me was nothing I cared about.

My thoughts were still circling around the prophecy and the events of the previous night.

Voldemort had placed a wrong vision in Harry's mind and there was a battle in the ministry. He thought that they had kidnapped me and he wanted to save me. But in the department of mysteries they found Death Eaters and not me. So they had to fight. Luckily we weren't too late and were able to win the fight against the servants of Lord Voldemort.

I was almost killed. Hermione saved me, but she was injured. And they didn't know which curse it was. She saved me... Saved _me_... _Why did she do it?_

Harry followed Bellatrix and wanted to kill her, but Voldemort showed up and nearly killed him. Thanks to Albus my godson was still alive and Voldemort had to disappear quickly. But the minister of magic and many others had seen him.

And suddenly they believed every word Harry and Dumbledore said. And I was free.

* * *

The hospital wing was silent. Madam Pomfrey was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, so she could reach the people who needed help as fast as possible. When we entered she looked up and a little smile appeared on her face. Of course she still knew me after all this time. After all I'd been here very often.

Remus and Tonks were sitting on am empty bed next to Neville's. Remus stood up and hugged Harry and me. "How are you feeling?" he asked concerned.

"I'm fine." Harry said and went to Ron's bed. There he stood silently and watched his best friend in his sleep.

Behind his back Remus shook his head slowly. "No, you're not." he whispered.

"Of course he's not okay, Moony." I answered. "After all he's been through tonight that should be clear."

He nodded and looked at Harry, still standing next to Ron who has opened his eyes slowly. "Where am I? And what happened last night? The last thing I remember is... us going to the ministry to save Sirius and Lucius Malfoy showing up and wanting the prophecy..." He looked around confused and stopped when he saw me. "You're here? But..."

"I'm sure we can explain everything to you." I said quickly and smiled at him. Then I nodded towards Harry. He understood me and began to tell Ron what happened last night. But he left everything about the prophecy the two of us had heard out. Probably because he wanted to think or talk about it first.

While Harry was talking I turned my attention towards Remus and Tonks again. "Nobody's in serious danger. They'll all survive it. It's nothing very bad." Tonks assured me as she saw that I was very worried. "Neville and Ron will be up in a few hours and Luna and Ginny have already left to go to breakfast."

"And Hermione...?" I asked apprehensively.

"No one knows which curse Bellatrix had used, but Poppy is confident about her being healed soon." Remus put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down. "I know you think that it's your fault, but you have to see that you would have died if she hadn't pushed you out of the way. You could have been _dead _by now..." Suddenly he looked like the one who needed to be calmed down, so I shoved away his arm and hugged him tightly.

After a few moments I let him go and saw the tears in his eyes. Tonks had seen them to and was putting her arm around Remus. "It's all right. Don't cry, everyone's okay. We're all here, with you." At the sound of her voice he had begun to cry harder and now the two of them were hugging each other and it seemed like no one wanted to let go.

A little smile appeared on my face and I left them alone.

* * *

Madam Pomfrey looked up when she heard my footsteps.

"It's been a long time, Sirius Black." she smiled. "I thought that I would never see you again after all this trouble you have caused a few years ago, but now you're here, standing right in front of me and you are a free man. Professor Lup- I mean Remus had to say it twice because I was so surprised. The ministry has never admitted that there was a mistake in the past."

I nodded with a grin. "That's true. And I'm really sorry for the events two years ago, I hope you know that." Then my gaze went to Hermione for a few seconds and my grin vanished immediately. "How is she?" I whispered.

"She'll be fine. I began to heal her wounds and they will be gone in a few days. Then she should wake up."

"Would it bother you if I stay here until she's awake?"

"No, it wouldn't. After all she said your name in her sleep."


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's the next chapter, I hope you will like it ;) And thank you for your reviews :))**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 3

Hermione POV

Darkness surrounded me. Darkness and pain.

There was a constant whispering around me, but I couldn't understand what was said. I wanted to sit up, but it was impossible. My whole body hurt and I was helpless in the dark.

And then there were the weird things I saw.

_Harry, Ron and me on our way to Hogwarts... _

_Professor Umbridge standing in front of the class and telling us to pack away our wands... _

_The DA lessons... _

_And then Harry and the vision Voldemort had placed in his mind..._

_I was in the ministry again. We were at the department of mysteries and Harry was searching Sirius, who should have been there because the Death Eaters had captured him. But he wasn't there. Just Lucius Malfoy, who wanted the prophecy we've found. Of course Harry refused to give it to him and that's why the fight had started. _

_It was terrible. The screams shocked me and first I wasn't able to move. But then the members of the Order arrived and I got a little courage. But when Bellatrix turned her attention towards Sirius who was standing in front of that veil I knew that something bad was going to happen. The veil looked somehow dangerous and at the time Bellatrix prepared to curse Sirius, I shoved him out of the way. _

_Then there was pain. Very much pain and a voice - I think it was Sirius - was screaming my name. _

The last thing I remembered from that moment were two strong arms lifting me up. Then there was just darkness.

But what had happened? How were the others? And most important, was Sirius okay? I wanted to help him so badly, but I didn't know if I succeeded.

Suddenly I was very afraid. I wanted to scream at my body. Tell it that it was time to move again. I wanted to open my eyes.

But it was impossible.

* * *

After some time - I didn't know how much it was exactly - the pain lessened. And I began to hear the voices around me again. There were Remus and Tonks, Madam Pomfrey, Harry and... SIRIUS!

So he was alive. But why was I so happy about it? Of course we all knew that Sirius didn't expect to survive the war against Voldemort and so it was a great relief that he wasn't dead yet. And I was relieved that the others were alive as well, but why applied my first thought Sirius, Harry's godfather who had been in Azkaban for twelve years? And why did I care about him most?

I didn't know.

* * *

Being able to move again was facilitating. I felt my legs and arms again and was able to move in my bed. And I also felt that I was lying in a bed! _Good to know..._

And finally I was able to open my eyes.

The hospital wing was bathed in orange light, so it had to be early in the morning. First my head was hurting a little bit and my eyes weren't as good as usual, but those feelings disappeared quickly.

I wanted to sit up and look around, but as soon as I started to do that everything began to twist and I fell back into the pillows.

"Hey, easy over there. Don't overestimate yourself, you've been injured very badly." a familiar dark voice to my left said and my heart began to race.

Slowly I turned my head towards the handsome, dark-haired man who was sitting on the bed next to mine.

Sirius was smiling at me. I looked at him closely to make sure that he was okay. Then I smiled back shyly.

"You have to relax, you've been lying here for four days and nobody knew when you would wake up. We're still trying to figure out which curse Bellatrix had used." At the last sentence his expression became angry and he clenched his fists.

"Wait, _four days_?" I was stunned.

He nodded with an unhappy look on his face. Was I mistaken or were his eyes a little wet?

"And how long have you been waiting for me to wake up?"

"I've been here for four days now." Sirius said softly.

"Why?" I asked shocked.

"I wanted to make sure that you're okay. At least you wanted to save me. And I want to thank you for that, it was very brave of you." he smiled again and I didn't know why, but I smiled back immediately. There was something on this man which made me smile every time I saw him. It was... magic. My heart was still beating very fast and it wasn't going to stop doing it. _Not as long as he's around..._

"That's... very nice of you, Sirius." I stuttered and blushed. "And the others...?"

"Were here as often as they could. They are really concerned because you were the only one who didn't wake up the day after the fight."

"Some of the others were here too?" I asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah, Ron and Neville, the others were allowed to go back to their dormitories after Madam Pomfrey had checked if they were okay."

"Can you tell me what happened after I passed out?" Even though I knew that the story wouldn't be nice, I wanted to hear it.

Sirius looked at me anxiously. "Do you really think that you can manage it right now? Or should I get Poppy to check if you-"

"No I can deal with it, I promise." I said quickly. Of course Madam Pomfrey would want me to sleep again and that was the last thing I needed right now.

A smile appeared on Sirius' face, which made him look even more beautiful. _Wait, WHAT?_

"Okay, than here we go, Hermione.

When Bellatrix hit you with the curse, she thought that she'd killed you. She screamed that she had killed the mudblood and Harry ran after her while she wanted to disappear. He wanted to kill her, but Voldemort appeared in the ministry to kill Harry. Before he could do it, Dumbledore arrived and fought against him. When Voldemort realized that his enemy was too strong, he took control over Harry's mind. That didn't last for a long time because it was too painful and so he left the body of my godson and at the same time, the minister of magic and many aurors and other wizards and witches arrived.

Voldemort fled and Fudge saw that he'd made a big mistake by not believing Harry and Dumbledore. Now everyone knows that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as they call him is back and Dumbledore and Harry are heroes again. And as he saw me, he finally admitted that the ministry had made a mistake and that Peter Pettigrew hat killed the muggles. Now I'm a free man and I can go where I want again without being pursued."

I hadn't realized that I was staring at him with my mouth open. I closed it quickly (Sirius was grinning brightly) and continued to stare at him half shocked and half delighted. So everyone was okay, even though Harry had nearly been killed. Voldemort was able to control Harry's dreams and thoughts, but that wasn't knew to me. And the ministry finally believed Dumbledore and Harry. Soon the whole wizarding world would know about Voldemort, the Death Eaters and the danger we're all in. And Sirius was free. He wouldn't have to hide again. I didn't know why, but right now that was the point which made me happy.

"Oh my god. Seems like I've missed very much." I said.

"It's not that bad. Believe me, the events at the ministry weren't nice. It was horrible to see how scared most people were because they've seen Voldemort. The news that he's back have caused fear and desperation." Sirius shook his head, a tensed look on his face.

"I think you're right." I answered, nodding. "Maybe I can really be happy that I haven't been there. And how is Harry?"

"He's all right. The night has shocked and exhausted him very much, but you know Harry. He's a strong boy and he can deal with the things that happened to him." Sirius began to smile proudly.

It was clear to see that he loved Harry very much. I smiled and nodded. "You're right."  
Sirius ran a hand trough his hair and looked around himself. Then he focused on me again and grinned. "But let's stop talking about the events of that night." He said. "All that counts is right now, isn't it? So how are you feeling?"

I grinned back at him. It was very difficult not to do it. Almost impossible. No, definitely impossible. "To be honest... I'm hungry." I admitted.

His grin became even brighter. "Well, than I'm sure that you want me to call Madam Pomfrey to take care of you."

_Wait, WHAT?_


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's the next chapter, I hope you'll like it :) Please write a review so that I know if my chapters are okay.  
And I have to say that I can't write until next saturday because I'm not at home :( I'm sorry**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 4

Hermione POV

The last days of school were very boring. The teachers didn't want to teach then new things because the holidays were beginning soon and even if they would have tried, the students wouldn't have listened.

Everyone was talking about the events at the ministry, but of course no one of us wanted to tell them how it had been. We told them some little things and said that everything else was reported in the Daily Prophet.

Harry avoided to talk about that night too. It had been very horrible to face Voldemort and he wasn't over it yet. Luckily Sirius was still at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had allowed him to stay till the end of the year and it wasn't a surprise that he had accepted, grinning happily. He was the only person Harry wanted to talk to and they did it very often.

They never told Ron and me what they were discussing, but right now we didn't care. We were just happy that Harry and Sirius were okay and all the others were relieved because I was alive and not damaged.

The only thing I couldn't explain was that Sirius und I spent very much time together. Every second he wasn't at Harry's side he was with me. And I really liked these moments. We were talking about many things, like my life before I knew that I was a witch, my adventures with Harry and Ron, Sirius time at Hogwarts and what he had done before Lily and James were killed. And of course we made fun of Umbridge, spent time with my other friends and established presumptions about the future.

I liked Sirius more than I should, but I didn't care. He made me happy and I was sure that he didn't want more than a friendship. I also knew that the others were talking about us behind our backs, but as usual I didn't care. It wasn't their business.

On our last day at Hogwarts everyone was sad. Even though the year had been terrible because of Professor Umbridge, there had also been happy moments like the DA lessons. All members of the DA hoped that we would continue to meet during the next year, but Harry told them that it wasn't necessary anymore because Umbridge was gone and we would get a new teacher for defense against the dark arts.

Harry was very unhappy. He would have to spent the first weeks of the holidays at his aunts and uncles house and they were always were mean to him.

But Sirius had already told me that he knew what to do about that...

* * *

Sirius POV

I was sitting with Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Hogwarts Express and looked at my watch.

"We'll be there in about five minutes." I told them and smiled at Hermione, who was trying to get Crookshanks into his cage which wasn't easy because he tried to escape.

"Oh no." Harry murmured darkly. "The worst part of the year is going to start."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "It's just for a few weeks. And we'll sent you many letters." I smiled encouraging.

Hermione, who had succeeded and was now looking at Harry smiled too. "Don't you dare to think that we have forgotten you!"

Ron nodded. "I'll sent a letter to you as often as I can." he promised.

I grinned at him. "You mean as often as the size of your owl allows it."

He looked at me outraged. "Don't insult my owl! After all you were the one who gave it to me."

I tried to look sorry, but Hermione's amused face told me that I failed miserably.

Harry just wanted to say something as the train suddenly stopped. We stood up and left the train with all our things. At the platform Harry, Ron and Hermione said goodbye to many of their classmates and I looked for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

I found them talking to Tonks, Remus and Mad-Eye Moody. "What are you three doing here?" I asked curiously.

"We wanted to have a nice little chat with Harry's aunt and uncle." Mad-Eye grinned spitefully.

"Oh that's nice, I think I'll join you." I answered and a grin appeared on my face too. I looked at Harry, who was now standing next to me. "Don't be sad, the time will pass faster than you think. And I'll write you, I promise." He smiled at me.

"Thank you, Sirius."

"You don't have to thank me for that, you know."

Before he could answer two muggles came closer to us. The women was very small and skinny, while her husband was the exact converse. He was tall and heavy and it seemed like he didn't have a throat.

"Shall we, Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked friendly and moved towards the muggles.

"Good afternoon." he said in a friendly voice to Mr. Dursley. "You might remember me, my name's Arthur Weasley."

It was obvious that the Dursleys remembered Mr. Weasley. Their faked smiles disappeared and suddenly they looked rather angry. Of course Harry had told me that Arthur had destroyed most of their living room two years ago, so the reaction which came from them wasn't a surprise.

"We thought we'd just have a few words with you about Harry." I said with a bright smile.

"Excuse me, and you are...?" Mr. Dursley asked with a confused look.

"Oh, how rude of me. I should have introduced myself to you first. Of course. Well, my name is Sirius Black and I'm Harry's godfather." I grinned at them and held out my hand towards Vernon Dursley.

At these words Harry's aunt and uncle paled. "You are... his god... god... _godfather?_" Mr. Dursley stammered.

I nodded proudly.

"But then you are a criminal!" Mrs. Dursley whispered.

"Oh no, that was a misunderstanding." I assured them with a smile and Arthur, Remus and Tonks nodded. "I'm a free man again."

The Dursleys didn't seem to be convinced, but I didn't care in the slightest. "Well, as I said, we wanted to talk about Harry and about how you treat him when he's at your house." I knew that my smile had disappeared and that I looked angry.

Mr. Dursley took a step back. "I think it's none of your business what happens in my house-"

"I expect what you're not aware of would fill several books, Dursley." Moody growled.

"But that's not the point." Tonks interjected, whose pink hair seemed to offend Mrs. Dursley more than anything else, for she closed her eyes rather than look at her. "The point is, if we find out you've been horrible to Harry."

"And make no mistake, we'll hear about it." Lupin added kindly.

"Yes." Mr. Weasley said, "even if you won't let Harry use the fellytone-"

"Telephone" Harry whispered quickly and I smiled at him.

"Yeah" Arthur said, "if we get any hint that Harry's been mistreated in any way, you'll have us to answer to."

Mr. Dursley looked at us angrily. "Are you threatening me, sir?" He said, so loudly that passers-by turned to stare.

"Yes, we are." I answered even though I was surprised because the muggle had understood it very quickly.

"And do I look like the kind of man who can be intimidated?"

"Well..." Mad-Eye pushed his bowler back to show his magical eye. At the sight of it Mr. Dursley leapt backwards in horror and paled even more. "Yes, I'd have to say you do, Dursley!"  
I laughed silently and as I looked around I saw the amused faces of Harry, Ron and Hermione. I winked at her and she blushed, which I thought was very cute. Then I looked at Harry seriously. "If we don't hear from you for three days in a row, we'll send someone along."

The Dursleys looked at each other in horror and my grin became even brighter. I looked at the three friends who were standing next to me. "Well, I think we'll spend the last weeks of the holidays together." I said "Until then I hope that you have a good time." I shook Ron's hand, who smiled at me, hugged Hermione, who whispered "I'll write you" into my ear and after that I turned to Harry. "You remember the mirror I gave you some time ago?" I asked and the expression in Harry's face told that he had forgotten it completely. "It's okay, at least I made you remember, right?" I smiled at him. "You can talk to me whenever you want."

"Thank you Sirius." Harry whispered and hugged me tightly.


	5. Chapter 5

**So finally here's the next chapter! I'm sorry that it took me so long to write it and that it's very short, but I hope you like it either way. I promise that the next one will be longer and I'll try to write it as quickly as I can ;) I would be happy about reviews :D**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 5

Sirius POV

Being able to go outside again was great. It made the first weeks of the holidays much easier because I wasn't able to see Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Ron was with his family at the burrow, but I left them alone. The family should enjoy the time when most of them were at home. Okay, Arthur, Percy (whose name was a taboo), Charlie, Bill, Fred and George had to go to work, but they (except Percy and Charlie and Bill) were at home in the evenings. Being together as a family was a gift at these dangerous times and I, who wasn't part of it, didn't belong there.

My house was still the headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix, and so many people were coming and going at each time of the day. Remus was still undercover at the camp of the werewolves and Kingsley protected the prime minister of the muggles. That was why they were rarely there. But others like Mad-Eye, Tonks, Mundungus and Snape were showing themselves many times. The presence of Severus Snape was like a torture for me. I hated him since we met for the first time in the Hogwarts Express and that feeling strengthened within the years we knew each other. The only thing which made me tolerate him in my house was that Dumbledore trusted him. I thought that Harry's presumptions about him being a Death Eater were justified. Even though I didn't say anything and each time he was here we glared at each other and said mean things.

Dumbledore was also there a few times, but he didn't tell the other members of the order what he was doing when nobody was able to tell where he was. We didn't ask about it too, because Dumbledore was a powerful wizard and he knew what he was doing. Remus and I had discussed it and we came to the result that it had to be something important, if Dumbledore himself was dealing with it.

The first week of the summer holidays wasn't over when the first letter arrived at Grimmauld Place. I opened it quickly, assuming that it was from Harry, but when I saw the handwriting I made a surprised noise. The handwriting on the paper wasn't from my godson, but from Hermione Granger. She told me that she would be writing and I thought that she meant once or twice just to tell how she was and what she was doing. I hadn't expected a letter from her only a week after the school was out. I looked at it curiously.

_Dear Sirius, _

_how are you? Is everything alright at your place? I hope nobody is getting on your nerves and your mother learns how to shut her mouth. _

_The first week of my holidays has been nice. Of course my parents are happy to see me and we are preparing to go to Italy for a week and a half. We want to visit Venice, Florence and Rome. I'm very excited, Italy has an unbelievably thrilling history and some famous wizards and witches were born there. But I also can't wait to see the things the muggles have built there. It must have been very difficult to create such big buildings without magical help. I have to show you some photos when we meet again. _

_The last three weeks of the holidays I will stay at the burrow, Mrs. Weasley has invited me to stay with them. Maybe I could visit you at Grimmauld Place? Or you could come to the burrow too. I was told that Harry will be also there. He would be really happy to see you. _

_Hermione _

I read the letter many times. First to make sure that I had understood everything right. Then to search for a second meaning behind her words. And then just to look at her handwriting which was perfect to me.

She wrote me a letter.

Hermione Granger wrote me a letter. Before my own godson wrote me one. She thought about me. She wanted to see me again. She liked me. She asked me to visit her.

I didn't know why I was so excited and had such a strange feeling in my stomach. I liked Hermione very much, that was right. She was the smartest witch I ever met and very talented. She was nice and sweet and tried to help everyone, which was an unusual character trait. And she made me laugh. And smile. And care about her. More than about anyone else.

I wanted her to be happy. I wanted to _make_ her happy. Be the reason why she was happy.

_Am I falling in love with Hermione Granger? _


	6. Chapter 6

**The next chapter! I hope you like it :) Please write a review  
I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 6

Hermione POV

"Are you sure you've got all your things?" my mum asked in a worried voice.

I nodded again. "I think this was the seventh time you've asked and I still have everything I need for school in my trunk."

She smiled softly. "Okay then, I think it's time for you to go."

I knew that she was upset. Before I could say something to comfort her, my dad entered the living room. He didn't try to look happy. I saw immediately that he was dejected and that the thought of me going to Hogwarts again, even though Voldemort was back was unpleasantly to him.

"You don't have to be upset, you know that, right?" I asked and smiled at them.

"But when you say that... _he_ is back then you are in danger or am I wrong?" dad shot me a questioning look and my mother quit her attempt to look happy.

"Well, we are all in danger, I've told you that he's very powerful, but at Hogwarts nothing's gonna harm me. Dumbledore will be there and he's the only one You-Know-Who has ever feared. So please don't worry about me. I'll write you as many letters as I can, I promise."

After a few moments of silence my parents nodded slowly. "But take care of yourself." my mum begged.

"I promise." I whispered before I hugged both of my parents. Then suddenly the fire in our fireplace turned green and I knew that it was the moment to go. The ministry had accepted Mr. Weasleys inquiry to connect our house with the floo network so I could reach the burrow quickly and without trouble. But the connection would only last a few minutes, so I had to go now or I would have to find another way to get to the Weasleys.

"I love you." I told my parents with a smile and took a step into the fireplace.

* * *

When I arrived in the kitchen of the burrow, many people were waiting for me. Mrs. Weasley was making dinner, while Ginny, Ron and Bill were sitting at the table and looked at something I couldn't see. But none of those things mattered to me when I saw who else was in the room.

Sirius looked better than a few weeks ago. He wore a black jeans with a dark blue shirt and a black jacked. All of these things seemed to be new and his hair was cut so that it only touched his shoulders. And there was something else different about him. He looked much happier than before. He was also the first one in the room to notice my arrival and when he looked at me his face lit up. His smile turned into a bright grin which made me blush and I grinned back immediately.

To my surprise the answer to my letter had arrived very quickly and Sirius had been very happy about it. His letters were always very long and he told me what was going on in the headquarter and how Buckbeak (who was now at Hogwarts again because Sirius had asked Hagrid to take care of him) was and what he was doing. And he seemed to be very interested in the things I have done. In his letters he asked many questions about Italy and also about my family and me, which was surprising. I knew that Sirius liked me, at least we were friends, but that was pretty much to ask in letters.

"Hermione, there you are!" Ginny, who had seen me too, hugged me tightly and smiled. Before she could say another word, she was pushed away and I was in Rons arms. Over his shoulder I could see how Sirius' expression turned angry - or did I just imagined it? - and I pushed Ron away quickly. "Do you want to strangle me?" I asked with a grin and patted him on the shoulder.

"Oh no, sorry, I mean, I didn't want-"

"Hey I was just joking!" I laughed. Ron, who had already turned red at my words, was looking like a tomato by now and everyone in the room began to laugh.

"Hermione, my dear, it is nice to see you. Are you all right? How were the past weeks to you and your parents?" Mrs. Weasley smiled at me and hugged me.

"It's good to see you, Mrs. Weasley. I'm fine and my parents too, the holidays had been very great." I smiled at her.

"That's great. Ron, can you take Hermione's trunk to Ginny's room, please?"

Ron made an annoyed face and disappeared on the stairs. Ginny followed him to make sure that he didn't destroy anything.

I turned to Sirius, who was sitting on a chair out of the way of the others. He smiled at me brightly and when I came closer, he stood up to hug me.

"You know that Ron and I are just friends, right?" I didn't know why I whispered those things into his ear, but I felt the urge to tell him that everything was fine and that he didn't have to be angry.

At those words Sirius relaxed and his grin reappeared. "It's good to see you. Everything's all right at home?"

I nodded with a smile. "Nice to see you too, Pads. And yes, my parents are fine, even though they are worried about me after the events of the beginning of the summer."

He raised his eyebrows. "And you are surprised about that?"

I shook my head. "No, not really. At least we're all in danger, right?"

Sirius nodded. "True. But at Hogwarts you're safer than anywhere else."

"That's what I've told them too. We've got Dumbledore."

He frowned. "But he won't be there forever, right?"

My smile disappeared. "Don't say something like that! I mean, you're right, but I can't imagine a world without Dumbledore."

"Me neither. So lets stop thinking about it." His smile reappeared. "Harry will be here in a few days."

"Harry will come here?" I asked with a smile.

Sirius nodded. "Dumbledore will bring him here."

"Why?"  
"Nobody knows. He didn't want to tell anything. Seems like we'll have to wait till Harry arrives here."

"You're staying?"

To my surprise he nodded and I felt my smile turning into a grin. "Well, a girl like you needs worthy company, right?" he whispered with a wink.

* * *

A few days later Harry arrived at the burrow. We found out that he was here the morning after his arrival because Mrs. Weasley existed on letting him sleep. So we entered his room (he was sleeping in Fred and Georges bedroom because they were living above their shop) early in the morning.

"We didn't know you were already here!" Ron said loudly to Harry, who was still half asleep. He wanted to wake him up, but instead of touching his shoulder Ron hit his best friend on the top of the head.

"Ron, don't hit him!" I warned him and heard Sirius chuckle.

Harry put on his glasses and grinned as he saw us standing here. Well, as he saw _Ron_ sitting in front of him. The two of them were so close now that it was impossible for Harry to see something else than Ron's face.

"All right?"

"Never been better." Harry answered and looked around the room. When he saw Sirius and me standing behind Ron, his grin grew even brighter. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a surprised voice.

"We are here to see you, isn't that obvious?" Sirius asked and took two steps towards Harry and sat down on the floor next to the bed. I followed him quickly and sat down too.

"It's great that you're here, Sirius!" Harry smiled. "How's everything going at the headquarter?"

"Same as ever, many people turning up and disappearing shortly after that, Snape being rude and as dirty as usual, you know that stuff." Sirius grinned and Harry began to laugh.

"When did you get here? Mum's only just told us." Ron looked at Harry curiously.

"About one o'clock this morning."

"Where the muggles all right? Did they treat you ok?" Sirius asked, looking at Harry very closely.

"Same as usual. They didn't talk to me much, bit I like it better that way. How're you Hermione?"

"I'm fine." I answered with a smile. "Italy is a very nice country, you know? It's history is very interesting."

"Okay, you have to tell me about it later." Harry smiled and I nodded. Even though he just pretended to be interested in magical history, Harry didn't want to hurt me. That was something I liked about him very much.

"By the way, you've missed breakfast." Ron told Harry. "Don't worry, Mum will bring you up something later, she reckons you look underfed." he rolled his eyes. "And now you've to tell us what's going on!"

"What's going on?" Harry asked in a confused way. "I was at my aunt and uncle's, remember?"

"But you've been with Dumbledore!" I reminded him with a smile.

"It wasn't that exciting. He just wanted me to help him persuade this old teacher to come out of retirement. His name's Horace Slughorn."

Ron looked disappointed, but before he could say anything I shot him a warning look. "Well, we... we thought it'd be something like that." Ron said slowly and Harry grinned. Of course he knew he was lying. Ron was a terrible liar.

"Horace Slughorn?" Sirius asked with a frown.

"You know him?" I looked at him curiously. It was possible that he knew him, at least Harry said that he was an old teacher and has left Hogwarts a long time ago.

"Yeah, he was my old Potions teacher." Sirius shrugged. "He's queer. Likes to collect trophies, the best students and the ones with good relations. He used to introduce them to famous people and after Hogwarts many of them became very famous because of him. And as quid pro quo he got little things from them, nothing too big, of course, just something to say thank you to an old teacher who has helped you very much."

"Potions?" Ron asked stunned. "But we need a new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher!"

"And I think I know exactly who has got that job now." Harry said darkly. "How can Dumbledore let this happen?"

"I think Dumbledore knows what he's doing. He trusts Snape and so we should trust him too, right?" I looked at the others uncertainly.

"Trusting _Snape_?" Sirius looked as if he had eaten something rotten.

"I'd rather die!" Harry cried and Ron nodded. "He's a Death Eater!"

I shook my head slowly. They would never be able to trust him, no matter what would happen. But maybe I could try to do it...

"Slughorn likes to collect trophies?" I asked to change the topic.

Sirius nodded. "Used to be head of Slytherin and knows many important people."

Harry frowned. "Dumbledore said that he'll want to collect me too."

"Of course, at least you're the boy who lived." I smiled and looked at Sirius. "Has he wanted to collect you, too?"

Sirius nodded. "The only Black who wasn't a Slytherin. He always thought that it was a waste to have me at Gryffindor. At least I was brilliant." He grinned ironically.

We all started to laugh.

* * *

When we left the room Harry discovered that we had someone else in the house, who wasn't wanted here by everyone. Of course we were all surprised when Bill turned up with Fleur Delacour and announced that they were going to be married. Nobody knew why he liked her, but he wouldn't change his mind. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny hated Fleur the most. Ginny began to call her phlegm and soon everyone in the house used that name behind Fleurs, Bills and Mrs. and Mr. Weasleys back.

In a house full of people it was difficult for Harry, Ron, Sirius and me to talk in private. When we finally succeeded at being in Harry's room alone, we began to talk about the lessons Dumbledore would give Harry.

"I think it must be because of the prophecy." Harry said and Ron and I stared at him. I noticed that Sirius didn't seemed so tensed and I knew that he already knew the truth about what was going to come.

"But nobody knows what it said." I said with a frown. "It got smashed."

"Although the Prophet says-" Ron began, but Harry held up a hand to stop him.

"The Prophet's got it right. The glass ball wasn't the only record. At Dumbledore's office Sirius and I heard the whole thing. And from what it said" Harry took a deep breath, "it looks like I'm the one who's got to finish Voldemort off. At least it said neither of us could survive while the other survives."

Suddenly I was afraid. So one of them would have to die in the end. Voldemort or Harry, one of them wouldn't survive the war. Someone took my hand and I looked up to see Sirius smiling at me reassuringly. I relaxed a little bit and smiled gratefully.

Then I turned to Harry again. "Are you scared?" I whispered.

"Not as much as I was." he admitted. "When I first heard it I was... but now, it seems as though I always knew I'd have to face him in the end..."

"But you won't be alone." Sirius said. "I will help you."

"And we will be there for you, too." Ron promised. "You won't be alone."

A smile appeared on Harry's face. "I love you all, you know that, right?"

Sirius nodded with a grin. "Of course, at least we're all awesome."

Laughing filled the room.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter number 7! :) Hope you'll like it and ****_PLEASE_**** write a review **

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 7

Sirius POV

The shock about Harry being the Chosen One didn't last long, because on the same day the results of the O.W.L.s arrived. Of course Hermione had very good grades, but she was upset because she had just ten Outstandings and one Exceeds Expectations in Defense Against The Dark Arts. Nobody of us understood why she wasn't happy (especially Harry and Ron, who hadn't that good grades) and it took us some time to cheer her up again.

When Harry had told her and Ron about the prophecy and I had taken Hermione's hand, I feared that she wouldn't let me do it. At least I was much older and she just liked me as a friend. But now I wasn't sure about that anymore. Friends didn't hold hands, not even when one of them was scared and didn't know what to do or say.

I also wasn't sure about my feelings for Hermione. I liked her and thought that she was very beautiful and smart and I cared for her very much. More than I cared for anyone else, including Harry. I loved making Hermione smile and laugh and joking with her was great. I wanted her to be happy. But I was far too old for her and she would never take someone like me. At least I was in Azkaban for twelve years, which was nearly her whole life.

A few days after the owls had arrived, we decided to go to Diagon Alley to get the things Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny needed for school. First Harry, Ron and Hermione went with Hagrid, who should take care of them, to Madam Malkin's to get new robes. In the meanwhile I visited Fred and George's shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It was really great and they had lots of things James and I would have needed in our time at Hogwarts, like Instant Darkness Powder and Decoy Detonators.

After some time Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived in the shop. They didn't look very happy and it seemed as if something bad had happened.

"Hey, what's happened? You look like someone had cursed you." I looked at them curiously.

"We met Malfoy and his mother." Harry said and to me it explained everything. I knew that they didn't like the Malfoy's and I didn't like them either, which wasn't a surprise while Lucius was a Death Eater and tried to kill my godson and his friends at the Ministry at the beginning of the summer.

"Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?" Ginny asked and she and Molly moved aside to look at them. Now Harry, Ron, Hermione and I were able to look out of the window and we saw Draco Malfoy walking along the street quickly, as if he wouldn't want to be seen.

"Wonder where his mummy is?" Harry said with a frown.

"Given her the slip by the looks of it." said Ron.

"But why?" Hermione asked.

Nobody answered her and Harry looked around to make sure that nobody was paying attention to them. The he put his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag.

"When the four of us will use it you can see our feet!" Hermione said immediately. "And I don't know if it's a good idea to follow him."

I smiled. "What's life without a little risk? And by the way, Mad-Eye has given me another Cloak, just in case I would be with you when you use yours. He seemed to know that one of them would be too small for four people."

Harry and Ron grinned. "That's brilliant!" Ron called out and Harry looked at him warningly.

"Be quiet! Nobody should hear us!"

Ron made an apologetic face and nodded.

"Well, shall we go then?" I asked and the others nodded. Harry and Ron took their cloak, while Hermione and I vanished under mine. We followed Draco as quickly and quietly as possible and discovered that he went into Knockturn Alley. There he entered Borgin and Burkes, a shop who was known for selling dark objects.

"If only we could hear what they're saying!" said Hermione and I nodded.

"We can!" Rons excited voice exclaimed under the other cloak. "I've got Extendable Ears."

"That's great." Hermione said and a Rons hand appeared in the air. I took the Ears quickly, so nobody could see us there and then we began to listen.

* * *

We weren't able to find out what exactly Draco was doing at the shop, because they talked about an object we couldn't see. But the conversation between Mr Borgin and Draco Malfoy gave us a hint that Draco had replaced his father as a Death Eater. At least Harry thought that. Hermione didn't want to hear a word of his theory, and Ron and I thought that it was unlikely that a sixteen year old boy would already become a Death Eater. Even though we weren't able to convince Harry and he told the story Remus and Arthur, who didn't think that he was one of Voldemort's servants either way.

* * *

On the last day of the holidays I told Harry, Ron and Hermione that I would be at Hogwarts sometimes, because members of the Order were patrolling there.

"Why is that?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"Safety. Dumbledore's orders. He told us that he will leave Hogwarts sometimes and then the school isn't protected very well."

"But why will he leave the school?" Harry wanted to know.

"Do you really think that Dumbledore told us where he is going when he isn't at Hogwarts?" I shook my head. "He likes to have secrets."

"He will have his reasons for not telling you where he is going." Hermione smiled at me. "And it's great that we'll see you during the year, the time until Christmas is too long."

I smiled back, missing her smile already. "That's so true."

* * *

The next morning the Ministry cars arrived very early. While the others were still searching the last things they'd forgotten, Hermione and I succeeded at being alone for a few minutes.

"I will muss you." she whispered and hugged me tightly.

"I'll muss you too, Mione. But you don't have to be sad, at least I'll be at Hogwarts many times this year." I smiled and looked her in the eyes, realizing that hers were wet.

She smiled back. "You know that I like you, right?"

That question took me by surprise. "Of course I know that. And you should know that I like you too very much. " More than I should.

"You're a great man, Sirius Black." she whispered. "And I'm so glad that I've saved you. You make everything seem easier and less dark."

"I've never really thanked you for saving my life, have I?"

"You don't have to."

"What if I want to do it?" I raised one eyebrow.

Then I cupped her cheeks with a smile and leaned in to kiss her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Next chapter! I hope you like it, I'll try to write the next one before the weekend. Please write a review :)**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 8

Hermione POV

Our way to Hogwarts in the Hogwarts Express wasn't very exciting. Harry was invited to meet Professor Slughorn and some other students at his compartment and Ron and I had to go through the train and keep an eye on the younger pupils.

The only strange thing was that Harry wasn't with Neville and Luna when they left the train. I thought that he was already in one of the carriages and on his way to the school and the others agreed, so we didn't search for him. In the great hall we realized, that Harry wasn't at the castle yet and we began to worry. Some time after the beginning of the feast he arrived, still wearing his normal clothes and being covered in blood.

I was the first of us to see him and I choked. "Harry, what happened to you?" I shrieked.

"Why, what's wrong with me?" Harry said and sat down between Ron and me.

"You're covered in blood! Come here." I raised my wand, "_Tergeo!_ Okay, at least now the blood's gone."

"Thanks." Harry answered. "How's my face looking?"

"Normal." Ron answered anxiously. "Why shouldn't it?"

"I'll tell you later." Harry said curtly.

I nodded. Of course he didn't want to say something when Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Dean and obviously Nearly Headless Nick were listening.

"How was your time at Slughorn's compartment?" I asked to change the subject.

"Wanted to know what really happened at the Ministry." Harry said.

"Him and everyone else here." Ron rolled his eyes. "Many people were questioning us on the train, wanted to know if you really are the Chosen One."

I nodded. "I hope they'll stop that soon. If they don't shut their mouths, I'll hex them."

Harry smiled, while Ron raised his eyebrows. "You'll hex them? I bet-"

He was interrupted my Dumbledore going to his feet. The whole hall was quiet now and the headmaster had the full attention of all his students.

"The very best of evenings to you!" he said, smiling broadly and opening his arms wide.

"What happened to his hand?" I frowned and looked at Harry with big eyes.

"His hand was like that when I saw him in the holidays. Seems like it wasn't cured by now."

"But why?" Ron wanted to know. "I mean, Madam Pomfrey can do something like that with one movement of her wand, right?"

Before anybody could answer his question, Dumbledore began to talk again. "Nothing to worry about. Now, to our new students, welcome; and to our old ones, welcome back!"

The rest of Dumbledore's speech wasn't very exciting. Most of it was already known to me and the other students, because it was told at the beginning of every year. The only other news which were terrifying to the others were that Slughorn was the new Potions teacher and that Snape got the job as the teacher for Defense Against The Dark Arts. But of course Harry, Ron and I weren't surprised because Sirius had told us everything about the old Potions master.

_Sirius... _

A little smile appeared on my face and I wasn't able to make it disappear. The last time I saw Sirius was before I got in the car of the Ministry, a few minutes after he had kissed me...

* * *

_"I've never really thanked you for saving my life, have I?" _

_"You don't have to." _

_"What if I want to do it?" he raised one eyebrow. _

_I was about to say something when he cupped my cheeks with a smile. I wasn't able to move. What was he doing? And why was he doing it? He couldn't like me __**like that**__! I was too young and too ugly and he deserved something better! But even though I thought all these things, Sirius leaned in and then his lips touched mine. _

_I had never thought that I would like kissing. The thought had been stupid to me, because I was convinced of living my life alone, without somebody to love. And there were more important things in life than feelings. But when our lips met all those thoughts vanished and there were just the two of us - Sirius Black and me, Hermione Granger. _

_His lips were soft and at first they barely touched mine. But as soon as he realized that I wasn't going to shrink back, he came closer and really kissed me. I returned the kiss immediately and wrapped my arms around his neck. One of Sirius' hands left my cheek and I felt it on my back, making me come closer to him. Now our whole bodies were touching and none of us made any efforts to let go. The kiss was still slow, telling a hundred things words couldn't say. It showed both of us that we were more than friends, meant to be with each other. Neither of us wanted to let go and the time seemed to stand still. _

_It was just Sirius and me. _

_Kissing. _

_Touching each other. _

_Loving each other, even though we weren't ready to express our feelings with words. _

_Of course the moment had to end some time. We heard Mrs. Weasley calling for us and we broke apart slowly._

_When Sirius eyes found mine, I blushed a deep shade of red and he chuckled quietly. He touched my cheek with his hand and I closed my eyes, wanting to remember this moment forever. _

_When I opened them again Sirius was smiling at me softly and I had to smile, too. "I'll miss you." I whispered and wrapped my arms around him again. _

_"I'll miss you, too, Mione." Sirius whispered into my hear. "But don't be sad, we'll see each other again much sooner than you think." _

_I let go of his shoulders and looked him in the eyes again. "Be safe, Sirius. I can't always be there to safe your life." _

_He smiled at me. "And you should look out for yourself, too. At least I need someone to keep an eye on me." _

_"Goodbye." I kissed him on the cheek._

_"Have fun at Hogwarts. And don't forget to write me!" _

_"How could I forget you?" _

_Then we left the room. _


	9. Chapter 9

**The next chapter ;) I hope you like it and please write a review**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 9

Sirius POV

The days after Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had left the Burrow and I had returned to Grimmauld Place, I was happier than ever before. Even in my youth, when I was together with James, Remus and Peter I wasn't in a mood like that. I was good looking and popular, everyone liked us and our jokes, but except my friends I had nobody to be with. Of course most of the girls liked me and wanted to be with me. My character wasn't important for them: I was cool and that was all that was important.

Now that I had someone who liked me because of who I am, I felt like nothing could worsen my mood.

I had kissed Hermione Granger, the smart, good-looking girl who had saved my life at the Ministry. I was in love with her, I couldn't deny it. She turned my head upside down and let me forget everything else, even my twelve years in Azkaban and that was something no one else had been successful at. When I was with Harry, the time in the dark prison had moved into the back of my head, just waiting to be able to get outside again when I had nothing to think about. Worst of all were all those endless hours I had spent in my house at Grimmauld Place, being forced to hide and mostly without somebody to talk to.

But now Hermione was at Hogwarts and I couldn't see her for at least three weeks. Dumbledore had told Lupin and me that he had a job for us to do. He didn't say what it would be, but before it was done neither of us could go to the school. It also seemed to be very dangerous. Mad-Eye was asked to get us several potions and other things to see our enemies before they would see us. And we were forbidden to talk to anybody about our mission. It was secret and only four people new about it: Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, Remus and I.

The only thing we knew about the mission was that it had to do with some of the Death Eaters and a place where they were hiding. At least rumors said so. Remus and I were chosen because all the other members of the Order of the Phoenix were busy at other places.

The only thing that bothered me at the mission was that I wasn't able to contact Hermione. I wrote her one last letter, the day before we had to go and I didn't expect an answer. It would arrive at Grimmauld Place and a member of the order would take it and leave it there, unopened. The next time I would hear something of Hermione would be when I arrived at Hogwarts and then I would have to explain many things to her. For example why I didn't answer her letter.

* * *

On a sunny Monday morning at the beginning of September, nearly a week after the Hogwarts express had started it's journey, Remus and I met Dumbledore at Grimmauld Place. We both wore muggle-clothes because we had to cross a village and didn't want to get the attention of the inhabitants. It was possible and much likely that there were spies if the Death Eaters dwelled close to the little town.

Dumbledore was very punctual. He arrived exactly at 8 o'clock in the morning, coming through the fireplace. We were already waiting for him and as he saw us, he smiled.

"Ah, there you are. It's good to see the two of you."

I smiled back at him. "It's good to see you, too, Albus. Would you like to take a seat?" We shook hands, Albus used his uninjured one and I frowned at the black flesh of the other hand.

"Of course." Albus shook Remus' hand and sat down on a chair on the opposite of the table. "And you don't have to worry about my hand, it's nothing that can't be healed. Just a little accident."

Remus nodded, not convinced. I could see the doubts in his eyes, which wasn't very difficult because I knew him for a long time.

"You do have everything for your journey?"

"Yes, we've packed everything we need, Mad-Eye was here yesterday and gave us the potions and the other things."

Dumbledore nodded contentedly. "And you know where you have to start?"

"A few miles south from a village called Crumptin, in a forest which surrounds it." Remus answered quickly.

"And then we will go into the village and try to find out something about strangers being seen there." I added.

Dumbledore's expression turned serious. "But you have to be careful. If the Death Eaters are there, they shouldn't see you. You have to surprise them. That's very important. If they know that you'll come, your chance of defeating them and getting away from there alive is very small. Remember to use the Invisibility Cloak and don't use the paths and roads, there they will most likely look for strangers."

Remus and I nodded.

"And question one of them if it's possible, you've got the Veritaserum Mad-Eye gave you."

We nodded again.

"Then I can't give you more advices, for I don't know what exactly will await you. All I can say now is, good luck, I think you will succeed without many problems."

"Thank you, Albus." Remus smiled. "We'll be careful, we promise."

I grinned. "Yeah, but you've forgotten one thing. You're with me, then careful doesn't mean the same."

* * *

Finding the hiding place of the Death Eaters wasn't very difficult. The house was standing on a little clearing four miles east from the village. It wasn't very big, built of large red stones with a black roof, and it looked like it was about a hundred years old. You could see that it was a muggle-house, because no spells were laid upon it and it started to fall into ruin slowly.

Five of Voldemort's followers hid there, but we didn't know a single one of them.

"Looks like they're new in business" I whispered and Remus nodded darkly.

"The question is if they know something."

"Honest answer? I don't think so."

We hid in the forest and watched them for a few days. Every day four of them disapparated and one of them stayed to guard the house. They returned before the sun began to sink and sat on a little table outside the house to discuss the events of the day. Most time they had tortured some muggles or muggleborns, for they were the lowest living creatures to them. When they first mentioned the muggleborns I was furious. I had to use all my strength to stay where I was and be quiet, because I was very close to them in the bushes.

About an hour after the sun had disappeared, they went into the house and began to sleep. Remus and I agreed that an attack in the dark wouldn't be very clever. We didn't know the house and so we could be beaten there very quickly. But after some exploring of the surroundings of the house we knew the place very well and we prepared hiding places.

We agreed to start the attack right after the four Death Eaters came back and they sat down in front of the house. There they were vulnerable and we didn't have to enter the house. So we waited for them. Remus would give the signal to start the attack, imitating an owl and then it would all depend on how good these men were at doing magic.

* * *

The beginning of our plan worked exactly like it should. The Death Eaters sat down, Remus gave the signal and each of us shocked one of them. The three others reacted faster than we expected. Two of them lied flat on the ground while the last one ran into the old house. My curse missed him and the hope of not being forced to enter the building vanished.

Remus followed the man into the house and so the two others were left for me.

I ran to a tree which was standing close to me and hid behind it. I felt the curses flying past me and hitting the tree. I looked for the next tree, standing a few meters left to me. I began to run to it, additionally looking for the two Death Eaters. I tried to hit one of them with a curse when the ground under my feet exploded.

I hurled through the air and landed in a cloud of dust. My left shoulder felt as if somebody would have burned it and when I tried to touch it I had something wet on my fingers. The feeling in my left arm faded and I couldn't move it as good as my right. Then the next curses began to fly above my head. I performed a shielding charm and stood up as quickly as possible. Slowly I went backwards, trying to get out of the dust which was still in the air. The pain in my arm was growing and I had to concentrate very hard to be able to ignore it.

In this moment I was glad to be an animagus. Even when I wasn't a dog I could hear much better then most other humans. After a few seconds of silence there was the sound of a breaking bough close to me. With my eyes still closed I pointed my wand in the direction of the sound and performed a spell without talking. There was a cry and someone fell onto the ground. A little smile appeared on my lips. Now there was just one of them left to me.

Finding the other Death Eater was more difficult, because I wasn't able to hear him. It seemed like he used a spell for that, and so I would have to let the dust disappear. That would make me vulnerable. There was the risk that I was seen first and that he would kill me without hesitation. I would have to be very quickly and even a little mistake could be deadly. But why should I do that if there was something much more easy?

Even though there was much dust in the air, I could still smell the other man. Everything I had to do was to turn into a dog. And I was right. His smell was very intensive and I was able to make out the exact direction in which I would have to go. Turning back into human form wasn't very intelligent. As a dog I had the surprise on my side and he couldn't curse me that easily.

The Death Eater was hiding behind a big oak and I attacked him from behind. First I jumped on him to make him fall to the ground. Then I bit him into his arm and shoved his wand away. Now he was crying fearfully and I growled loudly.

Then suddenly the dust in the air disappeared. I looked up to see Remus walking towards us, the other four Death Eaters were tied up. Remus smiled at us, but when he saw the blood on my shoulder he turned pale.

While he fettered the last Death Eater, I turned into human form again.

"What happened?" Remus asked anxiously.

"Nothing. He just blew up the whole ground on which I was standing."

My friend looked at the shoulder closely and pointed his wand at it. Then he whispered a spell and the pain began to vanish. "I can't heal you completely, but that should do it first."

I smiled at him. "Thank you."

"Not for that." Remus smiled again, even though he still looked a little worried.

* * *

Questioning the Death Eaters proved as an unnecessary task. They didn't know anything about Voldemort or his doings. The Dark Mark was given to them by one of his greatest followers, Bellatrix Lestrange.

After that, we contacted Mad-Eye and some other members of the Order, who took the five men to Azkaban. Someone took care of my shoulder and the wound nearly disappeared, even though it still hurt.

As far as I knew the next thing I would do was to go to Hogwarts.


	10. Chapter 10

**The next chapter and the last one I wrote in my holidays. Tomorrow I have to go to school again -.- I hope I'm not too busy, so that I can update at least once a week. I hope you like the chapter :)**

* * *

Chapter 10

Hermione POV

The day after our arrival at Hogwarts everyone wasn't that happy anymore. After breakfast Professor McGonagall gave us our timetables. I was going to continue with Charms, Defence Against The Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Potions.

When I got my timetable and saw that my first subject on that day was Ancient Runes, I left the great hall immediately. Of course I couldn't miss the beginning of such an interesting lesson. But even though I was eager to start with the lessons, my thoughts often turned aside. I had to think about Sirius very much and I had even dreamed of him. That was something new to me, normally all my dreams were about bad stuff like missing classes, having bad grades and people I know dying.

My second lesson that day was Defence Against The Dark Arts with Snape and it was as horrible as we thought it would be. Snape was mean to everyone in the room except the Slytherins and while practicing non-verbal spells he succeeded at giving Harry detention. After that lesson Harry, Ron and I were in a bad mood, but then Harry got a letter from Dumbledore in which he told him about their first private lesson. We were curious and started to speculate about the things the headmaster could teach Harry. The only thing which made us stop was Professor Slughorn.

This year Potions was one of the subjects I hated most. First everything seemed to be all right, I was able to answer every question Slughorn asked and I earned many points for Gryffindor, but then we had to make the Draught of Living Death.

Harry seemed to follow some strange instructions, which were written in the old potions book Slughorn had given him, and to everyone's surprise his Potion was the best one in the room, even better than _mine!_ He won the Felix Felicis and Slughorn was beside himself. Everyone knew that he liked Harry because of his past and now he even loved him because he had _his mothers potion skills!_ What a stupid idea! It was known that he was bad at Potions and normally our teacher should know that, but no! He seemed to be blind.

* * *

The following days Harry was reading the potions book whenever he had the time to do it. I refused to talk about things he read in the book and after some time he didn't say anything about it while I was around.

But Harry and his stupid potions book weren't the things that troubled me the most. Sirius had promised to write me letters while he was still at Grimmauld Place and first he did. After a few weeks he stopped to answer me. I didn't understand why.

Of course I was afraid, maybe he had realized that he didn't love me and that it all was really stupid. Or he was in trouble. Maybe he was on a mission for the Order. It was possible, I knew that many of the members weren't within reach at the moment because Dumbledore gave them special jobs to do.

During the next days, my fear grew. I wanted to get a letter from Sirius and I ran to the owlery every day. No letter came. Not after a week and after two weeks there wasn't a letter either.

The only thing which distracted me by that time was Harry's first lesson with Dumbledore. Our presumptions about him teaching Harry special and very powerful spells was wrong.

"I think that it's interesting." I said one evening in the common room.

"What?" Ron asked sleepily and looked up from his essay for Defence Against The Dark Arts.

"All the things Dumbledore tells Harry about Voldemort's past. I think they are interesting." I repeated.

"Well, that's true, but how do they help me to defeat him?" Harry asked and put away his potions book. I ignored his movement and shrugged.

"If Dumbledore thinks that you have to know those things, they have to be useful in some way, right?" Ron seemed to be more awake now.

"He wants you to understand your enemy. Maybe so you can learn about his weaknesses." I assumed.

"Yeah, maybe..." Harry murmured, lost in thought.

* * *

A few days later Harry began to seek people for his Quidditch Team and I went to the stadium to look at the trials. Many people were there, but most of them came because they wanted to see the _Chosen One_. I rolled my eyes when they giggled crazily and blushed when Harry looked at them. How could anyone be so stupid?

After the trials we went to the great hall and my thoughts returned to Sirius. I missed him very much and had written many letters to him. I didn't expect an answer anymore, for I knew that I would be even more upset when nothing came back. I even thought about asking Dumbledore if he knew anything about Sirius and his doings. In the end I didn't know why I didn't dare to do it.

The time seemed to pass more slowly, the more days I waited for him. I tried to ask the members of the order who were at Hogwarts, though Tonks didn't knew anything about Sirius and Mad-Eye, who was there once refused to say anything to me. He only said that I shouldn't worry, because everyone was all right. That was nothing to comfort me. I still didn't know where Sirius was and it felt like this uncertainty would kill me.

I couldn't eat and when I did, my stomach hurt. Paying attention to the things the teacher said was getting difficult and I was doing my homework late at night, when everyone was in bed to be able to concentrate on it. When others were around me, I missed him most. They were so happy and the people they liked or loved were around them. They didn't have to worry.

_It would be easier to know that he is in danger..._ I thought _Then I would at least know why he doesn't write me..._

* * *

When the first weekend at Hogsmeade was coming, Harry and Ron insisted on going there. They were worrying about me and nothing I said made them believe that I was all right. At last I agreed to go, just to make them happy. Maybe the idea of being able to leave the castle was good to me, too, because I was seeing different things and I would get some distraction.

The morning of the day at Hogsmeade was very cold and it looked like it was going to snow. In Hogsmeade I really got some distraction. We met Mundungus, who wanted to sell old, used stuff and on our way back we heard a weird conversation between Katie bell and her friend Leanne. It seemed like they were having an argument about something Katie was holding in her hand.

"It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!" we heard Katie say. Suddenly Leanne wanted to get the package Katie was holding and Katie tugged it back. The package fell to the ground and to everyone's surprise, Katie rose into the air, her arms outstretched. Her eyes were closed and her face didn't show any expression. Then Katie let out a terrible scream and we ran to her. We grabbed her legs and Katie fell to the ground. There she lied motionless and we all stared at her, a shocked expression on our faces.

I looked around and saw the package lying on the ground, right next to a silver necklace. I stood up and wanted to pick it up, when i heard an alarmed voice behind my back.

"Don't touch it! Grab it with something, but don't let it touch your skin!"

My heart seemed to stand still and I couldn't move for a moment. Then I slowly turned around and looked into a pair of grey eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

**Next chapter! It's not very long, but better than nothing, right? I think the next one will be longer and there'll be more of Sirius and Hermione :) Please write a review, that would be very helpful to me**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 11

Hermione POV

Sirius looked at me apprehensively. His face was white as a sheet and it seemed to me as if he was trembling. When he was that I was okay and hadn't touched it yet, he relaxed a little bit. But then he turned around to Katie and the tension in his body returned.

"Get back! Let me have a look at her!" he shouted and moved towards the girl, who was lying on the floor.

"Something's happened to her!" sobbed Leanne. "I don't know what-" she stopped at the look on Sirius' face. Suddenly Sirius knelt down beside Katie, took her into his arms and ran off towards the castle with her. While doing that, he looked over his shoulder to me. "Grab it with your scarf, but DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOUR SKIN!"

I looked at the necklace again and shivered. Slowly I grabbed my scarf and laid it on the necklace. Then I took it into my hands, hoping that the scarf and my gloves would keep it from touching my hands.

Harry and Ron looked at me with wide eyes and as soon as they realized that I was okay, we followed Sirius towards the castle.

It wasn't very difficult to catch up with Leanne. When we reached her, Ron touched her arm. "It's Leanne, isn't it?" he asked softly.

The girl nodded.

"Did it just happen all of a sudden, or...?"

"It was when she got that package!" sobbed Leanne and pointed at my scarf.

"Now I remember it!" Harry cried. "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said it was cursed. Katie must have touched it." He looked at Leanne. "How did Katie get hold of this?"

"We were arguing because of it. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it, said it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it. She looked very strange when she... oh no, no, no, I bet she was under the Imperius and I didn't realise it!" She began to cry again and I wanted to hug her, but it was impossible, because I couldn't do it without letting go of the necklace. So I looked at Harry sternly and he patted her on the shoulder, anxious not to touch her too much.

"And who gave it to her?" I asked Leanne.

"No, she wouldn't tell me."

I looked at Harry and Ron, who had exchanged looks. "Malfoy knows about this necklace."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh no, not again."

"Hey, listen to me. Just listen. It was in a case at Borgin and Burkes four years ago. He looked at it and I think that this was what he was buying when we followed him! He remembered it and came back!"

"I dunno, Harry..." Ron said hesitantly. "I mean, everybody could have bought it, right?"

"And didn't Leanne say, that she came back with it from the girl's bathroom?" I added.

"But she said-"

"McGonagall!" Ron said warningly and we stopped talking immediately.

"Sirius told me that you saw what happened to Katie Bell. Please follow me to my office, upstairs. Miss Granger, what are you holding?"

"The necklace she touched." I said and Professor McGonagall looked alarmed.

"Come on, quickly!"

We followed her upstairs into her office and when she wanted to close the door, someone else entered the room. I turned around to see Sirius pale face scanning me closely. When he saw that I was okay, he turned to Professor McGonagall. "Katie's in the hospital wing, but Madam Pomfrey can't do anything to help her. They'll take her to St. Mungo's."

"Good god." McGonagall murmured and walked towards her desk. When she saw that I still had the necklace, she stopped. "Put it on the table."

I did as I was told and everyone looked at it curiously. I felt a movement behind me and suddenly something was touching my hand. "Are you all right?" Sirius asked softly and I nodded. We would have to talk later. This was not the right moment.

Leanne was sent to the hospital wing, too, and when she left McGonagall turned to Harry, Ron and me again. "What happened when Katie touched the necklace?"

"She rose into the air." Harry answered before either Ron or I could speak. "And she screamed, and then collapsed."

Professor McGonagall nodded slowly. "Do you have any idea who gave that necklace to her?" she asked and Harry hesitated for a moment. I knew that he wanted to tell her about Malfoy and the things we saw at Borgin and Burkes, but after a few seconds he shook his head. "No idea, I'm sorry Professor. She wouldn't tell Leanne."

McGonagall nodded again. "Well, then I think that you should go to your common room again. Good day to you all."

We left her office and went towards the Gryffindor tower. On our way Harry told Sirius what he thought about Draco.

"But you can't be sure." Sirius said with a frown. "Maybe he had bought something else when we saw him at Borgin and Burkes. It could have been everyone at Hogsmeade-"

"Or Hogwarts." Harry added furiously. "Why can't you just believe me?"

"I want to believe you, I think you know that. But you can't inculpate someone without a single proof."

"We have enough proofs!"

"Harry, calm down, please." I whispered. "Do you want anyone to hear the things we're saying?" I touched his arm and looked into his eyes. After a few seconds he relaxed.

"But don't believe that I will forget everything about Malfoy." he murmured.


	12. Chapter 12

**Next chapter! :) I hope you like it and I would be glad about reviews. **

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

Chapter 12

Sirius POV

The incident with the silver necklace had shocked me. It was on the day I had returned to Hogwarts and wanted to surprise Hermione at Hogsmeade. But instead of surprising her, she scared me to death by kneeling next to the cursed necklace the other girl had touched only a few minutes before.

When I saw her kneeling down my heart almost stopped. As soon as I saw what happened to Katie Bell, I knew that whatever she had touched was cursed. Of course at that time I didn't knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione were following the two girls.

Luckily nobody else got hurt and Hermione was okay. That was the thing which was on my mind and troubling me most when I took Katie to the castle. What were they doing with the necklace? How was everyone? And most important: _Was Hermione angry because I hadn't written her in all those weeks?_

Of course I had to wait to get the answers to my questions. Katie and the necklace were more important than my own feelings at that moment.

After we left Professor McGonagall's office, I wanted to take Hermione with me to talk in private, but Harry told me some things about Draco Malfoy which weren't unimportant, too. I didn't know if Harry was right, but if he was, something terrible was going to happen, I knew that. To make up my mind, I would have to think about the whole story more closely. And on that evening I hadn't got time. As soon as we reached the Gryffindor common room, I tapped Hermione on the shoulder and we left the room again. While doing that, we kept an eye on Harry and Ron. There were many people in the common room and if we were careful, they wouldn't notice that we left again.

We headed towards the room of requirement, the only place we could think of. There we were alone and nobody was able to find us or enter the room. We found it as a little sitting room with a fireplace and a big red sofa right before it.

* * *

None of us had talked on the way to the room of requirement and when we sat on the sofa, I looked at Hermione very closely. She was thinner than in the summer and had dark rings under the eyes. It didn't look like she had slept much lately and she had been crying, I knew that. And it was my fault.

"How are you feeling?"

She closed her eyes, "Bad." and took a deep breath. When she opened the eyes again, there was a questioning look in them. "Where have you been? And why haven't you written any letters? I mean, you just vanished and nobody would tell me where you are-" she broke off and started to sob loudly.

I hugged her tightly and she buried her head on my shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here. I won't leave you again. I'm there for you. I love you, Hermione." I whispered softly and after some minutes she started to calm down a little bit. When her eyes met mine again, they were red and the dark rings were even brighter.

"I thought you didn't want to write anymore. That you thought about the whole thing again. I mean, how could someone like you want me? I am nothing compared to you." She started to cry again and I put my hands on her cheeks to make her look at me.

"Don't say that again. You are everything to me, all right? And I wanted to tell you what I was doing so badly, please believe me. But I was on a mission with Lupin, Dumbledore forbid us to tell anyone. It was very secret and important to the Order." I was speaking very quickly now, fearing that she might make up her mind and run away from me. What a stupid idea.

"A mission?" Hermione asked very quietly and I nodded.

"I didn't want to go. When they told me that everyone else was busy at the moment, I had no choice. Somebody had to do it. I would have written letters to you, really! Most of the time I have been thinking about you. Sometimes Remus had to slap me to make me come back to reality. It was a very hard time for him." A little smile appeared on my face.

And when she smiled back, I knew that she believed me. I hugged her tightly and kissed her with such a passion that we fell back on the sofa, me lying on top of Hermione. Quickly, I sat up again and she giggled, her cheeks bright red. "It's good to have you back, Sirius."

"It's good to be back, Mione."

"So what have you been doing?" she asked curiously. That was my girl, always wanting to know everything which was going on. So I told her about Remus' and my trip to Crumptin and the events which had taken place there. It wasn't a very long story, because we had watched the Death Eaters most of the time, but when Hermione got to know that I got injured, her face went pale.

"Are you okay?" she shrieked and I nodded quickly.

"Of course, they fixed me and now the wound has almost vanished. It doesn't hurt anymore. I'm alright." I smiled reassuringly and she relaxed.

"So the trip wasn't very successful."

"No."

"The Death Eaters didn't know very much."

"That's right."

"And you risked your lives for nothing."

"I wouldn't say it like that. We captured some Death Eaters. Even if they didn't know anything important, they were dangerous. They tortured muggles and muggleborns and they had to be stopped."

After a few seconds, Hermione nodded. "Right."

I smiled. "Good."

"I've got one more question."

"Then ask."

"You said that you love me."

I froze. "That isn't a question."

Hermione grinned at my answer, and I asked myself why she didn't know that she was so beautiful. "Did you say it?"

"What?"

"Sirius!"

"Okay, I said it." I took her hands. "And I mean it. Hermione Granger, I, Sirius Black, love you more than anything. And I will love you forever, I promise." Now I said it. She would run away. It had to be like that. She would realise that I wasn't her type.

"I love you, too, Sirius." Hermione whispered and I couldn't believe it. Was this a dream? The best dream of my life? It had to be.

And then I was kissing her and she wrapped her arms around my neck to pull me even closer. Her lips were soft and after a few seconds - or minutes? - of kissing Hermione opened her mouth and our tongues met, fighting against each other. It was the best feeling in the world, being with Hermione and knowing that she loved me, that we belonged together now. Forever.

When we finally broke the kiss, both of us were breathing heavily. We smiled at each other and Hermione giggled softly. About ten minutes later, I was still sitting on the couch and Hermione was sleeping next to me.


	13. Chapter 13

**Next one! Not very long, but I hope you like it either way. Just a little look inside Sirius' head. Please write a review :) **

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

Sirius POV

The following days at Hogwarts were the most happy days of my life. I spent nearly all my time with Hermione, Harry and Ron.

Of course Hermione and I kept our relationship secret. We didn't know how Harry and Ron would react when we told them that their best friend was going out with someone much older than her. And then there was the fact, that I was Harry's godfather, which made everything even worse and more difficult.

So we tried to act normal when other people were around. The only place where we didn't have to hide our relationship was the room of requirement. When we were there, nobody else could enter and so we had some time together - alone.

But we always had to keep an eye on the clock hanging on the wall each time we entered the room. Harry and Ron could notice our disappearance and then we would have to answer questions. That didn't happen until now, but he wad to be careful. Those things happened mostly when nobody expected them.

But even though there were these risks and we had to hide our love, I was the happiest man in the world. It seemed like nothing could make me feel bad and I had to smile all the time. Hermione was very happy, too, and she began to look better again. The dark rings under her eyes vanished and she earned weight again, which made her look even more beautiful.

It was delighting to see her smile and hear her laugh and Harry and Ron began to feel better, too. They had been worrying about her very much and not being able to cheer her up drove them crazy. At least she was their best friends and they cared about her. So they were in a bad mood very often, but when Hermione was around, they pretended to be happy.

Of course they had noticed that I was responsible for Hermione's change of feelings and I knew that they were confused, because I had effected her that much. It was just a matter of time until they asked questions and I would have to answer them honestly.

If that should happen to one of us, Hermione and I agreed that we would tell them the truth, but _together. _When one alone would tell them the whole story, misunderstandings were more likely and everything could get worse than it already was.

But the most difficult thing was to tell any adults of our relationship. We both knew that Molly Weasley would be furious when she got to know about the two of us. She didn't like me very much, because she thought that I was too reckless. In the summer she was nice most time, but just because there was nothing she could blame me for. The news of me going out with Hermione, a girl who was much younger than I was myself, would stop her being nice forever. She would hate me. Even though Hermione wasn't one of her children, she treated her like one of them. And Molly was very protective about her family, everyone knew that.

Arthur would take the news of our relationship more easily, that was clear. He - and Remus, too - would just want both of us to be happy and if a relationship would fulfill that wish, everything was okay.

Hermione and I thought that most members of the Order would see it like this, except Mrs. Weasley. And we weren't sure about Harry's and Ron's reaction.

And then there were Hermione's parents.

They were muggles and for them the age was very important. They even started to talk about a couple, when one of them was only about five years older; ten was nearly a scandal! Maybe Hermione's parents were different, because their daughter was a witch and they were used to some weird things by now, but we couldn't be completely sure. We had decided to tell them about the two of us at the beginning of the summer, when the year at Hogwarts was over. Then we wouldn't ruin their Christmas days and we had more time to explain everything and get to know each other.

Hermione would tell them that she was invited to the Burrow for the holidays and that wasn't a lie, because Molly had invited her in the summer. Her parents wouldn't be very happy about that, but of course they wouldn't say anything against the plans of her daughter. They loved and respected her, no matter what she was doing.

We had also decided to tell the others in the holidays at the Burrow, because then everyone was there and we didn't risk it being told in a wrong way.

But before we had to make this big step, there was something else we had to do. Well, something we had to go to.

* * *

Horace Slughorn organized a Christmas Party.


	14. Chapter 14

**Next chapter! I hope you like it, please write a review ;) **

* * *

**Chapter 14**

Hermione POV

The news of Katie Bell being at St. Mungo were discussed in the whole castle for the next weeks. There were only four people who saw what really happened - and every single one of them refused to say anything about it. Leanne was still too shocked and not able to say something. She was at the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey said that she had to stay there for a while. And of course Harry, Ron and I refused to tell anybody what happened, too.

On the one hand we didn't want the whole castle to know about the curse and Katie's injury, and on the other hand we didn't say anything because of Harry's theory. If Draco had to do something with it, he would be even more careful by now. But even though nobody knew the details, everybody seemed to know the most important things of the accident.

The whole castle knew that Harry, Ron and I were there, and they knew that Sirius carried Katie to the castle. And of course they knew that there was an object which was responsible for her being injured.

"He will be more careful, even though we haven't said something." I told Harry one evening in the common room. We were sitting at the fireplace, Harry in a big red armchair and Sirius and I on the sofa next to it. Luckily nobody else was in the room. Ron seemed to be with somewhere in the castle with Luna Lovegood, his almost-girlfriend and the others were already sleeping.

The past weeks Ron began to talk to Luna more often and we assumed that they were together, but we didn't say anything like that to Ron. We would have to wait until he told us the truth, because he probably thought that we would make fun of him. We all knew that he didn't like Luna very much when we first met her. I had already said to Harry that I wouldn't mock him. You can't decide who you love, right? Sirius and I were the best example. (Of course I didn't say that!) Harry had agreed and told me, that he would be very happy for them. In a world like this love was very valuable and it was one of the best weapons we had. Love was much stronger than hate and it would always beat the Dark Arts. After those words I had been speechless for a while. Who was this man and what had he done to my best friend?

"And that is the problem." Harry answered angrily. "We have to find out what Draco is up to and to be able to do that, we have to follow him."

"How will you do that?" Sirius asked and raised en eyebrow.

"I have the Marauder's Map and the Invisibility Cloak."

"What will you do when you find him?"

"See what he's doing and tell Dumbledore."

"And if it's nothing wrong?" I looked at Harry and raised my eyebrows, too.

"That won't happen."

"But just supposing that-"

"No, Hermione. That won't happen."

I sighed and Sirius touched my hand to calm me. Harry starred into the fire and so he didn't see the movement of his godfather and I was glad about it. I smiled at Sirius and relaxed.

"Who do you want to take to Slughorn's Christmas Party?" I changed the topic and hoped that Harry wouldn't ask whom I had invited.

"I don't know." Harry answered honestly, still not looking at us. "There isn't anyone I want to invite."

"Well, you have to be careful what you drink." I said in a warning tone and he turned around to look at me. At my words Sirius had removed his hand quickly.

"Why?"

"Some girls want to slip you a love potion. I thing Romilda Vane is really going to do it."

"How do you know?" Harry asked confused.

"I heard them talking about it in the girl's bathroom. Sadly they didn't have the potions with them, so I couldn't confiscate them." I shook my head. "This is just so stupid."

Sirius nodded. "Let me guess. Fred and George sent them to the castle, but they were disguised as something legal."

I nodded. "Part of their Owl Order Service."

"Then Filch is being fooled, isn't he? These girls are getting stuff into the school disguised as something else!" Harry was talking more quickly now. "So why couldn't Malfoy have brought the necklace into school-?"

"Not that again." I said immediately and rolled my eyes.

"Come on, why not?" Harry demanded.

"The detectors Filch uses can find Dark Magic and Dark objects. Normal love potions aren't dangerous or Dark magic, so they aren't found. But the necklace, which is a very strong Dark object would have been found within seconds." Sirius explained.

"Okay, I understand it! It's not possible to smuggle the necklace into the castle. Right. I'm going to bed." With these words Harry stood up and vanished on the stairs to his dormitory.

* * *

Sirius and I decided to tell the others that we were just going as friends. It wasn't a good explanation and when we told Harry, I thought that I saw something like distrust in his eyes, but I also could have imagined it.

In the end Harry had asked Ginny, but it wasn't easy for him to do it. She had broken up with her last boyfriend, Dean, a few weeks ago and Harry wasn't sure if she was already over him. I had assured him that she liked him very much, but Harry didn't believe me first. And then there was the fact that she was Ron's sister. First Ron was angry when he got to know it. At least his best friend was going out with his little sister. However he calmed down after a while. He had decided that Harry was better than every other boy and after that he was okay with the two of them being together.

On the evening of the Party, Sirius and I met in a lonely corridor. I wore a simple red dress with black shoes and Sirius a black dress robe, which looked very good on him. I smiled and he kissed me softly. "You look great." Sirius whispered into my ear and I chuckled.

"You look even better."

He started to grin and held out his hand. "Shall we go then, Ma'am?"

As soon as we reached a more crowded part of the castle, we stopped holding hands and just walked next to each other. The closer we came to Slughorn's office, the louder the sounds of laughter, music and conversations grew.

When we finally reached the office, I was very surprised. The room was much bigger than the ones of the other teachers and everything was decorated very beautiful. Sirius, who was standing next to me, smiled. "He always liked to have better things than all the others. That's also a reason why he holds these dinners and parties. In that way, he hasn't changed at all."

"Oh, Sirius, my boy!" Slughorn boomed and grinned at Sirius and me. "And Mrs Granger, it's good to see you! Come in, there are many people I'd like you to meet!"

And before we could say one more word, he had already introduced us to many of his famous guests. There was also a Vampire, Sanguini, accompanied by Eldred Worple, an author. They tried to impress Sirius by talking of a biography they wanted to write, but it seemed to me as if he wasn't really listening. Something else had caught his attention and when I followed his view, I saw Harry and Ginny standing next to Trelawney, Slughorn and Snape. What was Snape doing here? He didn't seem to be very happy about his situation and that didn't surprise me. It was well known that Snape didn't like to be at parties or similar things. The Yule Ball had also been a place where nobody had expected him.

Then suddenly someone else moved towards Harry and the others. It was Filch and he was dragging Draco Malfoy into the crowd. I exchanged a look with Sirius and slowly we began to move towards them, hoping that nobody would notice us.

"Professor Slughorn," I heard Filch say "this boy tried to come to your party, even though he isn't invited."

Malfoy freed himself of Filch's grip and looked fron Slughorn to Snape. "Okay, I tried to gatecrash, happy?"

"No, of course not!" Filch cried, but Slughorn interrupted him quickly.

"It's all right, Argus. It's Christmas and it's not a crime to want to come to a party. I think we should forget the punishment and just be happy and enjoy the evening."

Now Filch looked even more furious. He just wanted to say something, when Snape took a step towards Draco. "I'd like to have a word with you."

"Oh, now, Severus," said Slughorn, hiccoughing, "it's Christmas, don't be too hard-"

"He is in my House and I am the one to decide how hard you have to be. Come with me, Draco. We'll have a word outside."

They left the room and I think that Sirius, Ginny and I were the only people in the room, who realized that Harry was following them.


	15. Chapter 15

**Next chapter! I hope you like it and I would be very happy to read some reviews :) **

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

Sirius POV

"So Snape was offering to help him? He was definitely _offering _to help _him_?" Ron asked for the third time or something like that.

"If you ask once more," said Harry, "I'm gonna stick this sprout-"

"I just want to make sure that I understood you right." Ron said quickly. The two boys were standing at the kitchen sink of the Burrow and had to peel sprouts for Mrs Weasley. Outside it was snowing and Hermione and I stood next to them. Harry had just told us what he got to know when he left Slughorn's Christmas Party and I couldn't really believe his words.

"An Unbreakable Vow?" Hermione asked and looked up from the towel which she was folding. "Are you sure?" she had an uneasy expression in her face and I wanted to hug her tightly, but of course that wasn't possible when Harry and Ron were there. We really had to tell them...

"Yes, that's what they said. But what does it mean?" Harry looked at each one of us.

"Well, you can't break an Unbreakable Vow..." Ron began and Harry rolled his eyes. It seemed to me as if he had already figured that out.

"What happens if you break it?" my godson asked, now looking at me.

"You die." I said and Hermione nodded darkly. "I think it's very cruel." she added.

"Fred and George tried to get me to make one." Ron said and now we all stared at him. "I was five or something like that! I didn't know what it means to make such a Vow and Dad found us just before we could do it. He went mental." Ron shivered. "It was the only time I've seen him as angry as Mum."

Hermione looked at him wide-eyed. "Okay, I knew that they were insane sometimes, but I didn't believe that they would do something like _that_!" she murmured and shook her head angrily.

I nodded. "Luckily Arthur could stop them."

In that moment, Fred and George entered the kitchen and we had to interrupt our conversation. They used some magic to make Harry, Ron and Hermione angry (which just worked with Harry and Ron) and then Ron tried to throw a knife at them. Of course I prevented it to hit one of the twins and everyone in the room was impressed by my fast reaction.

"I thought that something like that would happen." I simply said and then Molly came into the room.

"What's going on here?"

"Nothing." six voices answered at the same time and Molly looked at us very surprised. "Oh, well, okay. Fred, George, I'm sorry, but Remus will arrive tonight, so Bill will have to sleep in your room, too."

"No problem." Fred answered and his mother smiled.

"Then Harry, Ron and Sirius will sleep in the attic and Hermione shares a room with Ginny and Fleur." I saw that Hermione didn't look very happy, but luckily no one noticed that.

"I think everyone should be comfortable."

"Everyone will have a bed." George said after Mrs. Weasley left the room and we all chuckled. "And now it's time to go, Fred." he grinned at his brother.

"What are you up to?" Ron asked. "You can go where you want and we have to peel these stupid sprouts. And _he_" he pointed at me accusingly" refuses to help us!" I made an innocent face and smiled sheepishly.

"We'll go to the village." Fred grinned. "There's a pretty girl working at the paper shop..."

"Okay, we understand." Hermione cut in and the twins left the room quickly.

"That's so unfair!" Ron muttered but I was sure that nobody except me understood what he said. At least my ears were as good as a dog's.

* * *

After dinner Harry, Ron, Hermione and I sat on the beds in Ron's room. Harry wanted to discuss his theory about Draco Malfoy being a Death Eater and Snape helping him with whatever he was doing again, but after some time he gave it up. Nobody seemed to believe him and at the end he was angry and that made it very difficult to talk to him.

After a few moments of silence, in which we looked around in the room, Ron began to speak.

"So what is going on between the two of you?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked and tried not to look uncomfortable. I just raised my eyebrows at Harry and Ron, who looked at us demandingly.

"Oh come on, we're not stupid!" Ron looked from Hermione to me, and then back to her. "You've been walking around in the castle alone and you exchange looks every few seconds!"

"And don't forget that you went to Slughorn's Party together. I'm sure you would have found someone else if you wanted it, Hermione." Harry added and then I noticed something in his eyes which I couldn't assign immediately. Then I realized that it was some kind of amusement. First I had thought that Harry'd be furious because I was his godfather and Hermione his best friend. But he didn't seem to hate the idea of us being together. He was happy for us.

"Don't look at us like that!" A grin appeared on Ron's face. "You should have known that your best friends realize that you're hiding something."

"But how... I mean..." Hermione stammered and she flushed. I put my arm around her shoulders to comfort her. They knew and so we had nothing to hide anymore.

"It's all right, Mione. We wanted to tell them the truth either way, remember?" I asked softly and looked into her eyes. Under my touch she began to relax again and a small smile appeared on her face.

"Come on, Hermione. Of course we noticed it when you began to behave differently. We know you for years now." Harry smiled at her, too. "And we also saw what happened to you when Sirius was on his mission. You were miserable and nothing could comfort you."

"And then Sirius came back and BAM! You were happy again and everything was all right and you two went off, alone and the only thing you talked about was Sirius." Ron grinned at us.

I raised my eyebrows, a large smile on my face. "What did she say about me?"

"Oh well, you are-"

"You won't tell him those things!" Hermione threaded and now she was grinning, too.

"But if we wants to know-"

"No."

"And when-"

"I said no, Ronald."

Ron became silent immediately. He knew that Hermione didn't joke when she said something in that tone. I grinned and hugged her more tightly.

"And you are okay with the two of us being together?" I asked and looked at Harry, who nodded.

"Of course. You make each other happy and we know that we can trust the two of you. I mean, you'll take care of each other and keep each other safe, and that's all that counts."

Ron nodded. "But if you hurt Hermione, you'll have a big problem, Sirius."

I nodded. "I know. And I won't hurt her, I could never do something like that. I promise." I looked at Harry and Ron, who seemed to be satisfied. So I turned to look at the love of my life, who smiled brightly. "You're awesome, you know that?" she asked and I smiled softly.

"No, I can't be. You are."

And then we kissed each other.

**"Don't do that when we're around!" **Harry and Ron screamed and we started to laugh.


	16. Chapter 16

**Next chapter! I hope you like it, please write a review, that would be very helpful. And tell me if you have more ideas for the story :) **

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

**Chapter 16**

Hermione POV

The next days were really good. I liked being able to show that I loved Sirius, when Harry and Ron were around. Of course it would have been even better when we didn't have to act at all, but for that we had to wait until Christmas Eve. Which came much quicker than we liked.

Sirius, Harry, Ron and I have thought about how to tell the others very much. Harry said that the best thing we could do was to tell the others the truth, but Ron was against it. He replied that his mother would be furious, and we all agreed to that. So we had to figure out some other way to tell them. In the end we decided to do it spontaneously because we couldn't decide on how we wanted to do it.

But before we could even think about telling anyone at Christmas Eve, there was something else happening which was even more important.

* * *

We were all sitting at the table for Christmas lunch. I sat next to Sirius, who sat between me and Remus and on the opposite of the table sat Harry and Ron.

Ron was making a fool of himself, because he always wanted to help Fleur. In his eagerness he even nearly covered the whole table in gravy. It was difficult for Sirius and me not to laugh, but luckily nobody except Harry noticed our amusement.

"You are as bad as zat Tonks." Fleur said to Ron. "She is always knocking-"

"I invited _dear_ Tonks to come along today." Mrs Weasley cut in and glared at Fleur. "But she wouldn't come. Have you spoken to her lately, Remus?"

Lupin shook his head. "No, I haven't been in contact with anybody very much. But Tonks has her family. I'm sure she will be there, won't she?"

"Hmmm. Maybe. It seemed to me that she wanted to spend Christmas alone, actually." She looked at Lupin with an annoyed expression and suddenly I had a suspicion. I would have to tell Sirius what I thought when we were alone.

"Tonks's Patronus has changed it's form." Harry told Lupin and I looked up from my plate. "Snape said so. I didn't know that something like that can happen. Why would your Patronus change?" He looked at Sirius and Lupin questioningly and I knew that he thought the same thing as I did.

It seemed as if Sirius had no intention to answer that question. Of course he knew the right solution, but maybe he wanted to know what Lupin had to say just as much as Harry and I did.

Lupin took his time chewing his turkey and swallowing before saying slowly, "Sometimes... a great shock... an emotional upheaval..."

"But-" We never got to know what Harry wanted to say, because suddenly Molly rose from her chair.

"Arthur! It's Percy!" The conversation we just had was forgotten and everyone was following Mrs Weasley's gaze out of the kitchen window. And she was right. There was Percy Weasley, walking through the snow towards the house and he was not alone.

"Arthur, he's - he's with the Minister!" Mrs Weasley nearly screamed and now I saw the dark clothed figure which was following Percy, too.

When the door opened and Percy and the Minister entered the room, everybody froze. It was silent and it seemed like no one wanted to say something. Finally, Rufus Scrimgeour began to speak.

"You must forgive this intrusion." He said with a small, cold smile. "Percy and I were in the vicinity - working, of course - and he couldn't resist dropping in and seeing you all!"

_Liar_ I thought. I had noticed the way Scrimgeour looked at Harry and it seemed as if he was the only person in the room who was interesting for him. I didn't like the gleam in his eyes and Sirius seemed to have noticed all of that, too, because he stiffened.

"I really don't want to intrude. Maybe someone could show me your charming garden, so I you would have some time to speak to Percy alone. Ah, I see that this young man has finished, why doesn't he take a stroll with me?"

The atmosphere in the room changed immediately. Suddenly there was a tension in the air and I shivered. I knew that they were here because of Harry. The Minister wanted to talk to him in private, the letters he wrote to Dumbledore were about that, too. So Scrimgeour searched for a situation in which Dumbledore couldn't protect Harry from the Ministry.

"Yeah, all right." Harry said into the silence and stood up slowly. "It'll be fine." he said to Sirius and Lupin, who just wanted to stand up from their chairs. "Fine." Harry said again when Mr Weasley wanted to speak. And with that he followed Rufus Scrimgeour into the garden of the Burrow.

* * *

When Harry and the Minister left, the silence didn't stop. Percy was still standing at the door and Fred, George and Ginny looked at him reproachfully.

I turned to Sirius, who was looking out of the window, but he couldn't see the two persons anymore. They had vanished in the snow, which was falling faster now.

"What do you think he wants from Harry?" I whispered, even though I already knew the answer.

"Oh come on, Hermione. You are a pretty smart girl, you should already know it." Sirius said with a small grin and I had to smile back.

"We wants Harry to work for the Ministry. If he would do that, it would seem as if the Ministry had the situation under control."

Sirius nodded anxiously. "I don't feel good about him being out there with this... _person._" The last word was like a growl and I knew that Sirius was angry. Under the table, I carefully touched his hand. Right now I didn't care about the risk of this action. I just wanted to comfort him a little bit.

"He will be all right." Remus - who had listened to our conversation - said. "Scrimgeour can't hurt Harry. Not here and even if he could do it, he wouldn't. He fears Dumbledore just as much as Fudge did."

* * *

When Harry returned from his walk with the Minister, we were all sitting in the living room. Nobody wanted to eat anymore and so we had cleared the table.

Scrimgeour and Percy said goodbye very quickly and left the house without looking back. The Minister had looked very angry and dissatisfied and Harry wasn't very thrilled, too.

After he told us everything what was said in the garden, everyone was furious. The Ministry seemed to have it's own rules and didn't care about the thoughts and feelings of others, that was clear. Even though Umbridge had tortured Harry and nobody wanted to believe him until Fudge saw Voldemort himself, the new Minister wanted him to show up at the Ministry and support the methods of it. Unbelievable! There people really had to conscience, no hard and most important, _no brain_!

It was really stupid to think that Harry would support them after what they did, but why not? Maybe the boy doesn't remember it? Or he thinks that those things weren't that bad? Maybe he wants to be famous.

Idiots!

When the atmosphere calmed down after some time, Fred and George looked at Sirius and me curiously. "Don't you have to tell us something?"

I raised my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, you know that there are no secrets in this house!" Fred exclaimed and everybody in the room was looking at us now.

And then the most surprisingly thing ever happened. Mrs Weasley smiled at us and nodded encouragingly. "It's okay."

I looked at the faces of the others quickly. Harry and Ron did their best to pretend that they didn't know what we were talking about, Arthur, Remus, Bill and Fleur looked confused and Ginny, Fred, George and Molly smiled at us. Then I turned to Sirius, who looked as bewildered as I did. Then a grin on his face appeared. "Okay, you're right, we should've known that we can't hide it for a long time in a house full of people."

He looked at me and I nodded with a shy smile.

"I know some of you might not appreciate it, but in the last few months, I fell in love with Hermione. Yes, I know, I'm too old, too damaged and far too careless for her. But she doesn't care about it and so I'll do my best to make her happy. No matter what happens." Then he took my hand and smiled proudly at the others. I had to smile, too. I really loved Sirius and I was proud of being his girlfriend.

"Why do you think that we would be against the two of you being together?" Remus asked and smiled at us. "That's great! In a world like this, love it the most valuable gift. You see what happens to people who can't love."

Arthur smiled, too. "It's good to see that you are happy again, Sirius. When you escaped from Azkaban and were locked up at Grimmauld Place, I was very worried about you. But now that I know that you are happy again, I can breath much easier." And then he hugged Sirius, who was staring at him in surprise.

But before Sirius could say something, Molly stood up and looked at the two of us. "I hope you treat her well, Mr. Black. She's like a daughter for me and I'm protecting my children, no matter what happens. If you hurt this girl, you're _dead_, do you understand me?"

"Of course, Molly. And believe me, I could never hurt her. I love her too much." Sirius smiled and then Mrs Weasley's grim expression turned into a wide smile.

"Oh my god, I'm so happy for you, do you know that?" She hugged both of us tightly and I saw that she had tears in her eyes.


	17. Chapter 17

**Next chapter! I'm sorry that it's so short, but I'm writing many tests at school at the moment and I have to learn very much, so it's not easy to write regulary. But I hope you like it either way :)  
I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

**Chapter 17**

Sirius POV

The days after Christmas everyone in the Burrow was in a good mood, but the visit of Rufus Scrimgeour had left us some things to think about.

One evening, when Harry, Ron and the twins were looking at new stuff from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and Hermione and Ginny were in Ginny's room to talk about girls stuff, the adults in the house met in the living room, to talk about the things the Minister had said to Harry. Of course my godson didn't tell the Weasley's and Remus and Fleur everything what was said, but that should have been clear even before Harry entered the room again. There were many things which Harry didn't tell anyone except Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore and me and I thought that it was better that way.

"What is the man thinking? They can't just use Harry to get back their popularity!" Molly was very angry and first nobody tried to calm her down. Everybody knew that it wouldn't work. But after having talked for some minutes, Molly sat down again and looked at us thoughtful.

"They shouldn't do that, you're right." Arthur said at last and some people in the room nodded in agreement. "But what can we do about it?"

"Nothing." Remus murmured and hid his face in his hands. I looked at him anxiously. There was something on his mind and I knew it, but he wouldn't tell anyone what it was. I couldn't stand seeing my best friend like this and so I decided to find out what was going on later.

"And that's the point." I stated. "I think we all know that Harry would never accept the offer of the minister, not after what happened with Umbridge. And then there were all these newspaper articles which described Harry as an insane idiot - I'm sorry for my choice of words - and that was the end of his trust to the Ministry, if there ever has been something like that, which I doubt. And when Harry doesn't believe in the methods of the Ministry, no other wizard will do it. Theoretically that's a good point, I know, but even if it is not what it was many years ago, the Ministry still helps to keep the "peace" in the country. Meaning that Voldemort can't act openly. Which he probably never will. We should just all know that if the Ministry fails, with or without Harry, nobody will be safe anymore."

* * *

When the end of the holidays came, I wasn't very glad about it. In the Burrow, Hermione and I didn't have to hide. We could sit together whenever we wanted or hold hands without getting strange looks.

A few days after New Year, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione and I stood in the kitchen to return to Hogwarts. The Ministry had arranged a one-off connection to the Floo Network to return students quickly and safely to the school, which was a very good idea. Molly was the only person to say goodbye to us, because the twins, Arthur, Bill and Fleur were at work. She was crying again, but after the visit of Percy that wasn't very unwontedly. Of course she was sad when one of her sons didn't want to be with the family and only did what the Minister said.

"Promise me you'll look after yourself... stay out of trouble, Harry." Molly took him into her arms and began to cry even harder.

"I always do, Mrs Weasley," Harry said, "I like a quiet life, you know me."

A little smile appeared on Molly's face and I had to smile, too.

"And you, Sirius, keep an eye on the children and don't let anything happen to them."

I nodded quickly. "Nothing will happen to them as long as I'm around."

Molly nodded slowly. "Be good, then, all of you.."

And then we stepped into the fire to return to Hogwarts.

* * *

The next weeks at school weren't very exciting. All the sixth years were talking about Apparition Lessons, which seemed very cool to them. That's why I had to answer many questions. In the end Hermione and I began to meet in the room of requirement very often, to escape the everyday life at school.

There we told us many things about ourselves, which we didn't know before. I got to know many things about the Muggle-life and Harry, Ron and Hermione's first years at Hogwarts and some of the events really astonished me. For example the story of the troll on Halloween and everything about the Chamber of Secrets.

And I told Hermione everything about my time at Hogwarts and the Marauders and our doings. And about the first Order of the Phoenix. Hermione was a very good listener. She paid attention to every detail and asked many questions to make sure that she understood me right (which she always did).

And the room of requirement was now the only place where we didn't have to hide our relationship. We all agreed after Christmas that it was best not to tell anyone else. We knew that there were many people, who didn't accept the two of us being together. Either way it was because of the age difference or the blood status. To purebloods it was still repulsive that one of them could love a muggleborn. But to me it was the best thing which could happen. Hermione was the best thing which happened to me in my whole life, and I would love her forever, no matter what happened.

After the first lesson in this year with Dumbledore, Harry told Ron, Hermione and me what he saw. First it just seemed as a normal lesson, but after some time Harry mentioned a word which was slightly known to me.

_Sir, I wondered what you know about ... about Horcruxes? _


	18. Chapter 18

**Next chapter! Again very short, but I hope you like it either way. Please write to me, if you have some ideas for the story. I hope the next chapter will be longer :)**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

Sirius POV

"Horcruxes..." I murmured and realized that Harry, Ron and Hermione were staring at me.

"Do you know anything about them?" Harry asked with interest and I nodded slowly.

"I have heard some stories about them and they're all not very nice."

"And what are they?" Hermione asked, eager to get an answer to the question. I knew that she hated it, when there was something she didn't know.

"That spell is a piece of very dark magic and it's dangerous. At least my brother, who loved Dark objects and spells and everything, said so. A Horcrux is a part of your soul, hidden in something else." I saw that Hermione, Ron and Harry shivered at the idea of that.

"What do you mean by that?" Ron asked slowly. "I mean, can they be... flowerpots or toilet seats or..."

I nodded. "That's right. Well, I don't think that Voldemort would put a part of his soul in a toilet seat, but you can't be sure, right?" They started to smile and I grinned, too. It was easier to talk about things like that when the atmosphere in the room was a little warmer.

"How do you do it?" Harry wanted to know.

"Come on, Harry. You know the answer, so don't pretend to be stupid."

"You have to kill someone."

I nodded. "That was the most interesting thing for Regulus. I mean, how something like that works." I shook my head. "He was an idiot. A normal person, who can think of the consequences of his doings, would never use a spell like that."

Hermione nodded. She was very pale and because nobody except us was in the room, I took her into my arms. "This is just terrible." she whispered.

"I wonder why Voldemort asked Slughorn if he knew something about Horcruxes." Harry murmured. "I mean, he already knew what they were, right? Otherwise he wouldn't have asked."

"Then there has to be something which wasn't in the old books." I suspected and Hermione nodded slowly.

"That's why Harry has to get that memory." she said and then we started to think of a way to get it quickly.

* * *

Asking Slughorn after the Potions class wasn't a very good idea. When Harry did so, Slughorn knew immediately that Dumbledore wanted have the true memory. He got very angry and after that, Harry didn't get a single opportunity to talk to him.

So we had to change our strategy, which wasn't easy. We had to do something unexpected. But the ideas didn't fly to us on wings.

And then there were some other things which caught our attention. Harry was observing Malfoy whenever he had the chance to do it and then he forgot everything else. He wanted to proof, that Malfoy was a Death Eater and that was very important to him.

I had to admit that the behavior of the boy was very strange and I began to believe Harry, but Hermione and Ron didn't want to hear a single word about it. So I didn't say anything when they were around, but once we were alone, I told Harry that I distrusted Malfoy, too. Harry was very relieved to have somebody believing him, but nevertheless we weren't able to do anything about it.

The security measures of the school increased, too. More members of the Order were at Hogwarts and now we also had to watch the events at Hogsmeade. The students were angry, because their trip into the village was cancelled, but I was rather glad that Harry, Ron and Hermione weren't able to leave the castle. I didn't like the idea of them being in danger.

Nevertheless, the danger seemed to be in the castle, too. After Ron ate some chocolate with a love potion in it on his birthday, Harry wanted to help him and they went to Professor Slughorn, who wasn't very happy to see them. He made the antidote either way, which wasn't a problem. But Harry didn't get the chance to ask about Horcruxes again because the mead of Slughorn was poisoned and the old potions master was too shocked to help Ron, who had drunk it. So Harry had to save his best friend, who was brought to the hospital wing immediately.

Now we were sitting next to his bed, together with Fred, George and Ginny.

"So the poison was in the drink?" Fred asked quietly.

"Yes." Harry answered without hesitation. "Slughorn poured it out-"

"Would he have been able to slip something into Ron's glass?"

"Probably," said Harry "but why would Slughorn want to kill Ron?"

"No idea." Fred said, frowning. "Maybe he mixed up the glasses by mistake?"

"But why would Slughorn want to poison Harry?" I asked and raised my eyebrows. "You can say many things about Horace Slughorn, but not that he is a murderer."

"So the poison could have been in the bottle and it was meant for Slughorn himself." Hermione, who was hiding in my arms, said.

"But who would want to kill Slughorn?" Ginny asked.

"Dumbledore reckons Voldemort wanted Slughorn on his side." Harry said. "Slughorn was hiding for a year before he came to Hogwarts. Maybe Voldemort wants him out of the way; he could think that he could be valuable for Dumbledore."

"But you said that Slughorn wanted to give the bottle to Dumbledore for Christmas." Ginny reminded him and took his hand. "So someone could want to poison Dumbledore."

"Then the poisoner doesn't know Slughorn very well." Hermione said. "It should be obvious that he keeps something like that for himself."

At that moment, our conversation was interrupted, because Ron was croaking something which sounded like "Luuuuu-oah". Everyone looked at him and we wondered, why he wanted to see Luna Lovegood.


	19. Chapter 19

**The next chapter! I don't know it you like this point of view, but I had to write it. I couldn't think about anything else for hours! I hope you like it and I would be glad to get feedback :)**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

* * *

**Chapter 19**

Severus POV

I was standing at a window of Hogwarts and looking onto the grounds. It was very early in the morning and that's why there were no students to get on my nerves. Normally, the corridor was always crowded. Maybe because it was one of the main passages of the school and you had to pass it to get to most classrooms. But I didn't care. The only thing which was important to me now, was the silence.

The beautiful silence which was lying on the school early in the morning. At night, you could find many students - like Harry Potter - still awake and running around in the castle, often stealing things or doing forbidden stuff. There was no opportunity to think without being disturbed.

But now I was alone.

There was mist on the grounds and it was difficult to see anything except the forest, which was as dark as always. Hagrid's house was just a tan shadow in the grey mist and the smoke of the fireplace was invisible. It faded as soon as it left the chimney and touched the mist. The only thing you could see was a soft light on something, which had to be the window of the hut. So the fire was still burning, or again? But I didn't think that Hagrid was someone who stood up very early in the morning. Well, you could always be wrong, couldn't you?

At least I was wrong so many years ago, when I begged the Dark Lord to spare Lilly Potter, the women I loved. Of course he didn't follow my plead and he killed Lily and that stupid James, and he wanted to kill Harry, too, but there was something at the boy which saved him from the indescribable power of the Dark Lord. I still wasn't able to believe it. What was it, that made this boy so powerful? He wasn't a Dark Wizard, everyone knew that. So why did he survive?

I shook my head slowly. I didn't come here to think about the boy. There was something else, which was more important.

Yes, I had to deal with a boy, but not with Harry Potter, that would be my task later. Unfortunately. Although my task right now wasn't very pleasant, too. After all the boy I had to deal with now didn't want to talk to me. He ran away each time he saw me. That wasn't a problem, I was able to find him every time, but the conversations were a little... problematic.

I had to be very severe towards Draco Malfoy, who didn't want to accept my help at his mission. His mother was afraid because she didn't think that he could do it and so she asked me to help her son. I made the Unbreakable Vow. I had to help him, or I would die. And that wasn't good right now, after all there were some other things I had to do. I couldn't let down the headmaster. And I couldn't let down Draco as well.

Problematic.

Suddenly I heard a sound behind my back. I turned around slowly, to see a big Phoenix looking at me patiently. There were a few seconds where we just looked at each other and then I nodded. The Patronus faded as quickly as it had appeared there and I began to walk through the corridor, not looking out of the window again.

* * *

When I left the castle through the portal, which was open, I turned to the right, towards the lake. There was someone standing in the mist, dressed in a grey cloak which you could barely see right now.

I stopped a few meters behind the person. "You wanted to speak to me, headmaster?" I asked loudly and Dumbledore turned around with a smile.

"Ah, Severus, I'm glad that you could come so fast. I assume that you were already awake?"

"Yes, Sir." I answered, without smiling back at him. I never did that. It was just... wrong. I couldn't explain why.

"So then come on, we'll walk a bit."

We walked along the lake in silence for a few minutes.

"Did the boy accept your offer?" Albus Dumbledore asked and looked at me curiously.

I shook my head. "He is still convinced that he can do it alone. Whatever he is planning. Every time I ask, he asserts that I just want to do it myself and that I want all the attention of the Dark Lord. He's too proud to admit that he might need help."

The headmaster sighed and looked to the castle. "We both know that there will be a moment, when Draco realizes that he can't fulfill his task."

At this words, I suddenly got very angry. _Are you intending to let him kill you? Certainly not. __**You**__ must kill me ... The boy's soul is not yet so damaged._

We had the conversation about Draco's task a few months ago and there Dumbledore told me, that he wanted me to kill him. Of course I knew that before, at least I made the Unbreakable Vow, but the request of the headmaster had astonished me. And it made me angry. My _soul_ should be damaged? What did that mean? I didn't ask by that time, and I didn't want to ask right now. It was not important to me. I had things to do and that was everything I had to think of. After that, it would be over anyway.

So I tried to calm down again and nodded. "And then I'll do it." I murmured and the headmaster smiled brightly.

"Exactly! You have to do it, Severus. There is no other way."

"And I will know when the right moment has come."

He nodded again. "And then you can't go back."

"I knew that the first time I came to you."

* * *

A few days later, I was walking towards the office of the headmaster again. At the lake, I had asked him about Harry Potter and I got to know many things, which were difficult to believe. We talked about minds and souls, and I got to know more about the connection between the Dark Lord and Harry Potter.

I knocked at the door and after a few seconds I heard a soft "Come in". So I entered the room. The headmaster was standing at a window and Fawkes, the Phoenix, sat there in silence.

"Please sit down, Severus." I sat down on the chair in front of the desk and Dumbledore walked around the room.

"The things I'll tell you know are very important, Severus, and nobody is permitted to know them. Even Harry must not know them until the last moment, when it is completely necessary. Otherwise he wouldn't have the strength to do what must be done."

I looked at him questioningly. "But what must he do?"

"That is something between the boy and me, Severus. Now, listen closely. There will be a time, when the life of Voldemort's snake will be very important to him."

I frowned. "Nagini?" I asked and wasn't sure that I understood him right.

"Precisely. When Lord Voldemort doesn't sent the snake forth do to his bidding, but keeps it safe beside him, then, I think, it will be safe to tell Harry."

"Tell him what?"

I saw Dumbledore taking a deep breath and he closed his eyes.

"On the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a part of his soul was blasted apart from the whole. It is now living inside of Harry, because he was the only living soul in the room by that time. That is why there is a connection between him and Voldemort and it's also the reason why he can speak to snakes. And while that fragment of soul remains by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die."

"So the boy... he must die?" I asked calmly, but even though I could control my voice, my mind was racing. There was a part of the Dark Lord in Harry. It was the reason for their connection and it made the Dark Lord unbeatable, as long as the boy lived.

"And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus." Albus said and I turned my head to look at him, but the only thing I saw was his back.

I didn't answer for a long time. We had protected the boy, kept him alive, for Lily. And now he had to die. I wanted to scream, curse the whole world and most of all the magic. I took a deep breath. "You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?"

"Don't be shocked, Severus. How many people have you watched die?"

"Lately only those whom I couldn't safe." I said angrily and stood up. "You have used me. Everything I did for you, was to keep Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me that you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter-"

"But this is touching, Severus." Dumbledore said seriously, which made me even more angry. "Do you care for the boy, after all?"

"For _him_?" I shouted as loud as I could and I felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. "_Expecto Patronum_!"

The silver doe burst from the tip of my wand and ran across the office, before leaving it through the window. Dumbledore followed it with his eyes, and when he turned to me again, they were full of tears. Suddenly I felt, that I was crying, too.

"After all this time?"

"Always." I whispered and didn't hold back my tears anymore.


	20. Chapter 20

**So here's another chapter of my story. I don't know if you'll like it, but I had the idea some time ago and so I just wrote it. The next one will be more exciting ;) I would be glad to get your ideas in a review **

* * *

**Chapter 20**

Hermione POV

The next days Ron had to stay at the hospital wing and Harry, Sirius and I visited him every day. We were speculating about the reasons for the poisoned drink and there our thoughts returned to the attack on Katie Bell. The necklace had been cursed and the meat poisoned - and both things were meant for Dumbledore. There was a connection between these two events, but it could have been many things. Of course Harry and now even Sirius, were suspecting Draco Malfoy. I had to admit that the theory wasn't very erroneous, well, I was also starting to believe it.

The only thing missing was a proof. Nobody would believe us. Dumbledore told Harry that he shouldn't worry about Draco and his doings and he was still trusting Snape, who seemed to watch Draco closely. And so all we could do at the moment was to wait.

Well, Sirius and I were waiting, Harry had some other things on his mind. For example the Quidditch match at the weekend, for which he had to seek a new Keeper because Ron wasn't allowed to play. Harry was easy to annoy at these days. He had to take McLaggen into the team and everyone knew that he was an idiot and completely arrogant. He thought that he could do everything he wanted and he didn't care about the thoughts and feelings of others.

One day he even wanted to talk to me.

I was sitting in the common room, together with Harry and Sirius. Harry was doing his homework for Defence Against the Dark Arts, which I had already finished a few days ago, and Sirius and I were talking about unimportant things. Of course we couldn't sit too close together or show any signs of affection. If anybody knew about us being together, many people would turn against us. At least that was what we feared. We couldn't afford causing trouble in the fight against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. That would make everything worse.

So we were just sitting there and we talked about Hagrid and his different animals (and the ones we thought of as the most disgusting). Suddenly someone cleared his throat behind us and Sirius and I turned around, a surprised expression on our faces. Harry had also looked up from his homework and when he saw Cormac McLaggen standing in front of us, he sat up.

"Hey, what's going on?" Harry asked, presuming that he wanted to ask something about Quidditch and the match on the weekend.

"I don't want to talk to you." McLaggen said and looked at me with a pretty arrogant smile, I thought. "Would you mind coming with me for a minute or two?"

Harry's offended expression turned into an angry one and I could feel Sirius stiffen next to me. I tried to look at him inconspicuously and recognized that his face was expressionless.

McLaggen didn't seem to notice the tension which was in the air and I just wanted to tell him to go away, but I knew that it would make everything worse. He would try to talk to me again and then Sirius wouldn't just sit there and stare at him.

"And what do you want?" I asked politely and tried to smile jauntily. If he wasn't clever enough to understand that something was wrong, he should believe that everything was all right.

"Could we go somewhere to be able to talk without being disturbed?"

"And what do you want to tell her that it so secret that her best friends aren't allowed to know it?" Sirius raised his eyebrows and I shivered at the strange tone in his voice. It seemed as if it wasn't easy for him to stay calm.

"She will tell us what you said later, if you want it or not." Harry added and I knew that he just wanted to curse McLaggen right now.

"What do you think who you are? Can't I even ask a girl I like to go out with me without having other people around?" Now Cormac was getting angry, too, and some other people in the room were turning around to look at him. After having noticed what he just did, McLaggen sat down in the last free armchair next to the fireplace - the one in which Ron normally was sitting. "I'm sorry." Now he was just talking to me and trying to ignore Harry and Sirius.

"So you want me to go out with you?" I asked and raised my eyebrows, pretending not to have heard his apology.

He nodded.

"Then I'm sorry to disappoint you, Cormac." I tried to smile at him, but it felt like I was making a grimace. "Honestly, you're a nice guy, but you're not my type. You should know that I don't make much of boys and relationships and that stuff. I'm happy when I'm with books and there's not much more space for a date or something like that. I'm sorry."

The smile in McLaggen's face was vanishing slowly. It wasn't a surprise that he wasn't used to be turned down. "Okay." he said after a few moments of silence. "If that's what you think, then I hope you'll have a happy life, Granger. Alone." I had to hide my amusement at the sudden change of tone. Now his voice was cold and rejecting and he stood up and left the common room quickly - without looking back.

When he was gone, Harry, Sirius and I started to laugh. I felt Sirius squeezing my hand unobtrusively and I smiled at him. I wanted to kiss him so bad, but of course I wasn't able to do it. There were many people in the room and nobody should know about the two of us.

"I love you." I whispered into Sirius' ear and his smile grew wider.

"I love you too, Mione." he whispered back and there was an amused gleam in his eyes. "So you don't make much of boys and relationships?"

I laughed. "If you go to the room of requirement with me later, I'll show you what I think of those things."

Now Sirius was grinning at me, his eyes wide in surprise. "Why don't we go now?"


	21. Chapter 21

**Next chapter! I hope you like it and please write a review, I really want to know your ideas for the story :) **

* * *

**Chapter 21**

Sirius POV

A few days after the little incident with McLaggen - I wanted to kill him, but Hermione persuaded me not to - we found a solution for our problem with Slughorn and the memory.

To our surprise - and mostly to Hermione's - Ron was the one to find a way to get it from the old potions master. The answer was so simple, that we should have thought of it right after Dumbledore told Harry about his 'homework', but it seemed as if it was just _too_ simple. We were all used to solve difficult problems with much more difficult solutions, so the idea to use Felix Felicis, the liquid luck, didn't come to our minds. We were so stupid!

In those days, when I was at school with James, Remus and Peter, we always searched for the easiest way to solve a problem. Of course we were able to do difficult things, too, like becoming Animagi, but doing things _without_ doing much was much cooler and that's what we were - cool. Others admired us for doing strange and often dangerous things and we liked it a lot.

Now I was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, together with Ron and Hermione. Harry had just used the potion and went of to Hagrid, which made us all very angry.

"Do you really think he's going to Hagrid's?" Hermione whispered and looked at us with a concerned expression on her face.

"Yes." Ron and I answered together and Hermione became even more worried. I sat down on the sofa next to her and smiled reassuringly. After making sure that nobody was watching us, I touched her hand gently.

Hermione seemed to calm down a bit and frowned. "And what are we going to do now? I mean, he has to go to Slughorn, and not to Hagrid."

"You can't do much about it, can you?" Ron asked and shrugged.

I nodded. "We have to wait. And maybe he'll get the memory, even though he's on his way to Hagrid. Sometimes the fate is going ways we don't understand. Maybe Harry has to go to Hagrid to get the memory from Slughorn." When I saw the thoughtful expressions of the two students, my smile grew wider. "I think of all people you should know best that things do happen in very strange and unusual ways very often."

* * *

The whole evening and the beginning of the night we've been thinking of what Harry was doing, but of course he didn't return. So we went to bed and I couldn't sleep. The task of my godson was very important, not only to him but to the whole world. If we knew what exactly Voldemort asked so many years ago, we could be able to stop him or at least know what he'll do next. And maybe we could see where Voldemort had weak points. Even though there was not much humane at him, he was still human. You could defeat the Dark Lord, as he called himself. We did it before, but there was something which prevented him from dying. And so he returned. The only thing we needed to know now was how we could kill him forever.

With these thoughts I fell asleep and the next morning they were still there.

In the great hall, Hermione, Ron and I met Harry. He was coming very late and he looked tired.

"You look as if you were asleep the whole night." Ron greeted his best friend and Harry sat down and yawned.

"Almost." he murmured and I raised my eyebrows.

"How was your trip?" I wanted to know and now Ron and Hermione looked at Harry, too.

"It was great." A little smile appeared on Harry's face, but his eyes looked worried.

"What happened?" Hermione, who had noticed the look in his eyes, too, asked.

"I'll tell you later, you know where. In the break." Harry said and began to eat his breakfast.

We continued to eat, too. So after the first lessons in the room of requirement. That would be interesting.

* * *

The room of requirement looked like a comfortable living room with a sofa and two armchairs. Hermione and I sat down on the sofa and I laid my arm around her, while Harry and Ron sat down in the armchairs.

"So what happened last night?" Ron asked impatiently.

"I went to Hagrid." Harry began and Hermione looked at him reproachfully, but she didn't say something. "On my way to the grounds, I met Professor Slughorn. He didn't want me to leave the castle alone and when I told him about Aragog, he came with me. Of course not because of Hagrid. He wanted the poison from the spider. Seems like it is very valuable."

"Sounds just like good old Sluggy..." I murmured and Harry, Ron and Hermione laughed.

"After Aragog's burial, Hagrid and Slughorn began to drink and after some time, when they were too drunk to know what they were doing, I asked him again. It wasn't difficult to persuade him to give it to me."

"What did you say?" Hermione looked at him with wide eyes.

"I talked about my mum and the way she died, I mean, Slughorn loved her. And I told him that I want to kill Voldemort for her, so that nothing like that can happen again."

We looked at Harry without being able to say something. We knew that he'd do anything to persuade Slughorn to give him the memory, but talking about his mother and the way she died was... something we didn't expect.

Two tears were escaping my eyes and Hermione wiped them away. She took my hands.

"Lilly and James would have been proud of you, Harry." I whispered and Harry smiled at me.

"Thank you, Sirius."

After a few moments of silence, in which Harry was looking on his hands, Hermione and I exchanged a loving look and Ron tried to behave as if he wasn't there, I looked at Harry again.

"What did you do after you got the memory?"

"I went to Dumbledore's office. He returned yesterday night, so I was very lucky. Then we watched the memory. And you won't believe what Voldemort has done so many years ago."


	22. Chapter 22

**Another chapter! I hope you like it and please write a review, I really want to hear your ideas. And if you want to you can check out my new story, it's called 'You Saved My Life And Not Just Once' and it's also about Harry Potter, but I won't reveal more ;) Everything you know isn't mine, but the things you don't are made up by me**

* * *

**Chapter 22**

Hermione POV

Sirius, Ron and I looked at Harry curiously.

He got the memory from Professor Slughorn and watched it with Dumbledore. So Felix Felicis worked after all. Even though he went to Hagrid and not to Slughorn. Well, luck is something you can't understand, right? At least not if you prefer acting logical and trust your brain.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, ending the silence which filled the room.

"He created Horcruxes." Sirius assumed and Harry nodded.

"But he didn't want to know how to do it. He already knew how to create them. The question he asked was much worse." A troubled look appeared on Harry's face and I began to feel cold, even though Sirius had put his arms around me. This look was just appearing on Harry's face when something very bad happened.

"What could be worse than to know how to split your soul into pieces?" I raised my eyebrows. Creating a Horcrux was a piece of very dark magic and I shivered just at the thought of it.

"He wanted to know what happened if you split your soul into seven pieces."

"He asked _what_?" Sirius called out and I winced because his voice was so alarmed and loud. "I'm sorry," he apologized quickly and kissed my cheek, "but I can't believe that someone would split his soul into seven pieces. That's just... mad. I mean, isn't it savage enough to split your soul just into two pieces?"

"That's exactly what Slughorn said." Harry murmured. "Of course he believed Voldemort when he said that it was only a hypothetical question."

Ron's expression darkened. "What a fool. He trusted him too much."

"Nobody thought that he would really use dark magic." I objected. "Not even Dumbledore assumed something like that. I mean, in the years after that he did, but at that time? He was the best student at Hogwarts, won many prizes and they even thought that he could become Minister of Magic one day."

"And you have to consider that Slughorn was very nice to the best students all the time because he hoped that he could benefit of them someday." Sirius added. He ran his hand through his hair and I had to smile. I loved it when he was doing this. He looked so beautiful then and I wanted to kiss him so badly.

Of course Sirius noticed my look and he smiled at me, too. We kissed each other quickly and turned around to Harry and Ron again. They pretended not to have noticed what we were doing and my smile grew even wider. I really loved these boys; they were part of my family.

"So what happened then?" I asked to show the others that we weren't kissing anymore.

Harry looked at us again and I saw a little smile on his lips, right before his expression turned serious again. "Dumbledore thinks that he created seven Horcruxes. Slughorn told him that it was possible but that nobody dared to make more than one."

"When did he ever care about what others were doing?" Ron murmured darkly and Harry nodded.

"That's the point. If he would do that, he wouldn't be Voldemort anymore." Sirius said and I saw that he was lost in thought. "He doesn't care about others and friends are something he doesn't know. He's afraid of love and relationships of all kind. Everything he needs are followers who do what he wants. The only person he trusts is he himself."

"So you don't think that anyone knows about the Horcruxes?" Ron asked hopefully, but there was also doubt in his voice. I couldn't judge him for that.

"Presumably not."

"Dumbledore suspects that, too." Harry reported.

"But how did Dumbledore get to know all these things about them?" Ron was getting more and more confused.

"That should be clear to you, Ron." I stated and looked at him attentively. I wanted that he understood what I was saying. "Everyone fears Voldemort, right?"

"Right."

"And this fear is his strongest weapon. Nobody knows who he was before he became Lord Voldemort. Only a few people knew Tom Riddle, the brilliant student who was at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry so many years ago. Dumbledore was one of them. So he knows much about his past and how he behaved and maybe what he thought."

"Okay, sounds logical."

"With these memories of the young Tom Riddle, you can try to understand him. If you know what kind of person he's been before he turned evil, you can maybe assume what he's thinking today. And you can imagine how he would act in certain situations. Right?"

"Right." Ron answered immediately and Harry and Sirius nodded.

"And that's what Dumbledore is doing. He collects memories of Voldemort's past and uses them against him. Of course he searches for the ones which aren't that easy to find, the ones who show how he really is. And by doing that, he got the memory from Slughorn about the Horcruxes."

After a few moments of silence, Ron nodded slowly. "You're right."

I smiled. "That's something you don't have to mention."

Sirius grinned at me. "You're very confident, Madam."

"Thank you, Sir." I replied sweetly and we all started to laugh.

"And then there's one last thing Dumbledore told me. We've already destroyed some Horcruxes."

Suddenly, we were all serious again.

"You're kiddin." Ron called out wide-eyed.

Harry shook his head. "The diary. The part of Voldemort's soul in it tried to possess Ginny and by sticking it with a basilisks fang, I killed this piece. And then Dumbledore found a ring. That's also how he injured his hand. And he thinks that he's close to finding another one."

"So he's hunting Horcruxes when he leaves the school." Sirius murmured and Harry nodded.

"Hunting?" I asked. "That's a strange choice of words..."


End file.
